AFL<\/a> in 2028.<\/p>\n\u201cThis has been the hardest decision I\u2019ve ever had to make,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cFor me, the question has been under what conditions could it possibly earn support. That\u2019s why my support for the project is strictly conditional on economic, governance, design and community safeguards that seek to protect the welfare of Tasmanians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas claimed to have secured a fixed cap on the state\u2019s contribution to the project, additional independent oversight, more funding for grassroots sport and targets for local jobs as part of the project.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s support tips the balance of the 15-member upper house towards the project, which is a condition of the AFL\u2019s agreement with the Tasmanian government to give the state a licence to play in the national competition.<\/p>\n
A concept design of the proposed stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart. Illustration: PR IMAGE<\/p>\n
Casey Hiscutt, another independent who has previously expressed support for the stadium, told ABC radio soon after Thomas\u2019s statement that he would not reveal his vote until the debate in parliament, but he had secured confirmation from the government that any spending above what is currently budgeted will require approval from both houses of parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously going into the election with a position meant that I\u2019d need to have a high burden of proof to dissuade me from that position, there\u2019s nothing that I\u2019ve seen that affects that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The stadium needs the votes of eight MLCs in Tasmania\u2019s upper house, after already winning support of the lower house last month.<\/p>\n
The independent-dominated 15-member upper house chamber has three representatives from each of the Labor and Liberal parties which support the stadium, but the president \u2013 Labor\u2019s Craig Farrell \u2013 will not ordinarily vote.<\/p>\n
With Thomas\u2019s statement on Wednesday morning, six MPs have now made statements of support, while Hiscutt and another independent Tania Rattray have also previously been in favour of the stadium.<\/p>\n
A final vote on the stadium is expected on Wednesday or Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial $1.13bn stadium on the Hobart waterfront is likely to go ahead after a key crossbencher expressed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-323797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}