Tasmania AFL team news: Key questions that will decide 19th licence answered
WHY IS IT ALL ABOUT THE STADIUM?
As AFL CEO Andrew Dillon has said repeatedly, the 19th team licence is contingent on a Macquarie Point stadium with a roof. The 18 club presidents voted for that as part of the case for the new Tasmania team in May, 2023, so without the ground, the team is no longer approved.The case hinged on building a brand-spanking new stadium on Macquarie Point, prime real estate near the water's edge in Hobart, with a roof.The Devils are not expected to play there from the start, with at least a year spent playing between Hobart's Bellerive Oval and Launceston's UTAS Stadium. But if the stadium wasn't going ahead, that approval from the presidents would vanish, and even if it is pushed back, the case for a team becomes dicey.
WHAT DO THE DEVILS THINK?
Brendon Gale was appointed CEO almost exactly 12 months after the president's gave a thumbs up in that Zoom meeting. Last week he acknowledged that if the stadium plans fall over, so could the team, as club presidents would have to change their verdict somewhat and approve the team more on goodwill than the financial returns of a new stadium.
IF THEY NEED THE STADIUM, WHY ARE PEOPLE AGAINST IT?
The Greens have led the anti-stadium push, at least politically, and were against the Macquarie Point from the start. The latest estimates had the build ballooning out to $945m – up from the initial $715m – and those against it reckon that money should be put into health, housing an education. The anti-stadium crew either think they can cut a new deal with the AFL to keep a team – an idea which has no backing at this stage – or they are happy to kill the Devils.
BUT DOESN'T TASMANIA WANT A TEAM?
Definitely, the overwhelming sentiment on the island and on the mainland is that Tasmania should have a team. But some locals don't think it's necessary for a new stadium to be part of that team.
WHY DOES IT NEED TO BE A NEW STADIUM?
Basically, because the AFL says so. It has been a key part of the case for the team from the start and the team has not been approved without it.
DOES IT HAVE TO HAVE A ROOF?
The roof definitely makes things more expensive, but it has been a core part of the case this whole time. Cricket, who would play matches there in summer, has not been happy with the design of the roof, given the shadows it would cast.
WHAT DO THOSE IN FAVOUR OF THE STADIUM THINK?
The arguments on the pro-stadium side are clear. Firstly, the stadium gets Tasmania an AFL team. And other cities further west have greatly benefitted from expensive builds, with Perth Stadium the envy of many rival cities and the Adelaide Oval a gold-standard success story in revamping a state-owned asset. The Devils suggest that clubs in those towns have benefitted greatly, with Port Adelaide's match day revenue up a whopping 130 per cent since the Power moved out of Football Park, according to Devils modelling. The Adelaide Oval has been such a success that this masthead revealed last month that South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas had pitched to independent Tasmanian parliamentarians about the positives of a new stadium. A world-class venue would open the door to more non-sport events like concerts.
BUT AREN'T THERE TWO OTHER STADIUMS IN TASSIE?
Yes, there are two grounds on the Apple Isle deemed good enough to stage AFL right now. North Melbourne has hosted games at Bellerive Oval (Hobart) since 2012, with the Roos to soon depart as they chart a new course selling games to Western Australia. Hawthorn has made a powerful second home at UTAS Stadium (Launceston), having first hosted a game in 2001. Those games are bolstered by bank transfer, with the Tasmanian government sending cash to the Roos and Hawks to stage games there, and with a capacity of around 20,000 at each stadium, aren't seen as big enough to support an AFL side full time.
WHY DON'T THEY JUST REVAMP BELLERIVE OVAL?
That has never been part of the plans for the new team. Bellerive Oval has almost always been built around cricket and the ground is wedged into suburbia, making a genuine upgrade to a world-class stadium just too tough. The ongoing plan is for the Devils to play some home games at UTAS Stadium in Launceston going forward to ease the state's famous north-south divide, but playing home matches at Bellerive Oval long-term is seen as a no-go, given its shoddy infrastructure. The Devils themselves believe the team would be $5.4-5.9m worse off every year if they played home games at Bellerive Stadium instead of Macquarie Point. The Devils reckon sponsorship would be down by $1.2m, corporate hospitality cash down $1.8m, and even merchandise down $100,000 without a brand-spanking new stadium. Tasmania hopes to bring in $55-60m in revenue per year to be a viable team, so losing nearly $6m would make the club too reliant on AFL support.
BUT HASN'T THE AFL PROPPED UP OTHER TEAMS?
Definitely, recent expansion sides Gold Coast and GWS, have been held up by the league for their whole existence. But the league and the club presidents had little interest in bringing in another problem child on pocket money. Even as football participation has waned down south, Tasmania is not the growth market that western Sydney is for the game. And the Devils themselves have been adamant they want to stand alone, not with the crutch of the league. The AFL put in $15m of its money at the announcement of the stadium, but hasn't promised the same support for the new team as its other recent sides.
LET'S TALK POLITICS
Yes, we have to. This section is important, don't skip it. The Liberal government reiterated on Wednesday it would only spend $375m on building the stadium. Labor leader Dean Winter again said his party backed the stadium and the team, so both major parties support it. But the Greens don't and crucial independents are on the fence at best.
BUT IF LABOR AND LIBERALS SUPPORT IT, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
Even with both parties behind it, independents are needed to shepherd the bill for the stadium through the upper house of parliament, if they ever get to debating that. The Liberal Party is governing in minority, which means it needs support from the crossbench to stay in power, and that support doesn't all back in the stadium. Labor leader Winter wrote to Dillon amid a busy day in parliament on Wednesday 'to reaffirm our party's strong support' for the Devils and the stadium.
SO, WHAT IS THE KERFUFFLE AROUND 'NO CONFIDENCE' AND THE BUDGET?
Winter tabled a motion of 'no confidence' in Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff on Tuesday night, which was debated all day and deep into the night on Wednesday. That wasn't specifically about the stadium – officially the budget concerns include a bungled Spirit of Tasmania ferry port. The Greens wanted to insert that the cause of budget disarray was the impending stadium, but that was voted down. If the no-confidence call succeeds Rockliff will step down as premier, and either a new premier can emerge, of the Tasmanians go back to the polls for a snap election.
SO TELL ME AGAIN WHY THE POLITICS IS IMPACTING FOOTBALL?
No doubt, given the turmoil about the stadium, a new election would be a pseudo-referendum on Macquarie Point, and effectively the football team. Whether the Devils come out well in that potential public vote or not, another election would clearly delay the project further putting more doubt on the team, because remember, the team needs the stadium.
SO, WHAT DO THE DEVILS DO NOW?
Basically, sit on the edge of their seat. Club GM Kathryn McCann was in tears about the situation on Wednesday morning and said: 'our leaders need to think about the consequences of their actions'. The football club's concern had grown enough for Gale to essentially go on a media tour late last month, speaking to journalists and radio stations to push a case. Clearly, instead of hoping things would go their way, the Devils realised they had to get into the fight more. The football club is still wary of getting too involved in politics, but in this case, football is politics. Richo's fears for Tassie team 'disaster' amid political upheaval
Originally published as Key questions that will decide the future of the Tasmania Devils in the AFL answered
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Treasurer Jim Chalmers' proposal, panned by economists, academics, ALP luminaries and business leaders since it was introduced in 2023, is to increase taxation on super balances over the high-value threshold from 15 to 30 per cent, including on unrealised capital gains. As it stands, the revenue-raising measure will not be indexed to inflation or wage growth. The situation perfectly illustrates why the words Canberra and chaos sit together so snugly. Around the grounds this week and the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party voted to walk back its support of net-zero, we suspect Alex Antic was somehow involved. The good people of Tasmania may be heading for a by-election after the upper house blew up the leadership of Premier Jeremy Rockliff. And a silly sexist quip made during a debate about gender quotas from the bloke appointed to run the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, Alan Stockdale, was a step back in time, or revealed he had never caught up with it. 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A month on from the federal election and it has been chaos as usual on the Australian political scene despite a truce declared on the main post-plebiscite entertainment in the Coalition's civil war and spill talk surrounding Nationals leader David Littleproud dying down. Meanwhile, Labor has hit the ground running by approving Woodside's massive North West Shelf gas project for the next 70 years, putting a big question mark internationally over Australia's climate stripes and stewardship of ancient rock art, and then recruiting a rogue Greens senator who had fought tooth and nail to stop the approval. In fact, Dorinda Cox really let the Albanese government know what she thought about the decision just days before jumping aboard the Albo train because, as all parties involved suggested, including Greens leader Larissa Waters, their "shared values" make the new pairing a good fit. After Senator Cox left the Greens shrinking parliamentary army, bullying allegations against her emerged, including a complaint lodged by former Green and now Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe. The prime minister thought had been resolved, but maybe not, awks. A highly unsavoury text message that Senator Cox allegedly wrote was then leaked regarding her thoughts about Senate colleague Pauline Hanson. Her defection also now makes it four seats the Greens have lost to Labor in recent weeks after former leader Adam Bandt, Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates were waved bye-bye by voters at the ballot box, a perk of the landslide election win that will provide Albo with joy long after he leaves office. Also waving goodbye for now is Liberal candidate for Bradfield Gisele Kapterian, who won the seat by eight votes after preferences were tallied a couple of weeks ago. However, the slender margin demanded a recount, the result of which saw Independent Nicolette Boele handed the seat this week by just 26 votes. She joins Zali Stegall, Allegra Spender and Sophie Scamps as the fourth Independent woman who has taken a formerly safe Sydney seat from the Liberal Party By the by, at least six MPs suspect their devices were hacked over the past year, according to the Department of Parliamentary Services via The Canberra Times, in what an expert says is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has released the parliamentary schedule for the rest of 2025, and it is a little light on for sitting days. In fact, people who know these things suggest the schedule is the lightest attendance requirement for parliamentarians to travel to Canberra for about 20 years. A very senior MP was so taken aback by the situation that they labelled the workplace a "part-time" Parliament. "I must Google this, obviously in election years we will have fewer sitting weeks than normal, but I'd love to know the last year we only had eight sitting weeks in Parliament," the MP told ACM. "It's really part-time, isn't it? Especially now with the whole not sitting for almost eight weeks after the election." There are always four sides to every story. The ABC quoted a government source on Friday morning to say that US-slaughtered beef was being positioned as a bargaining chip to help reset trade ties in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariff regime that has slapped a 50 per cent impost on steel and aluminium, along with the 10 per cent universal duty. US beef producers have been able to access Australian markets since 2019 if they can ensure that the animals are born, raised and slaughtered in the US, while restrictions remain on Canadian and Mexican cattle slaughtered in America. Australia has been undertaking a review of those biosecurity rules, after the Trump administration requested they be lifted. The media report said pork would stay off-limits due to swine flu and other risks, but the beef bit prompted Nationals leader David Littleproud to urge Labor not to compromise Australia's biosecurity credentials in negotiations with the US. "The United States uses cattle from Mexico and Canada in their supply chain that poses a potential risk to our industry and ignoring those risks would be dangerous," he said. Meanwhile, the PM said in a radio interview that compromising on biosecurity was not on the table. "We'll never loosen any rules regarding our biosecurity," he said. "If things can be sorted out in a way that protects our biosecurity, of course we don't just say no ... but our first priority is biosecurity.. When ABC host Raf Epstein prodded Albo a bit more in asking whether beef slaughtered in the US that was raised in Mexico or Canada would be allowed into Australia, the PM said: "Full stop. Exclamation mark. It's simply not worth it.". Agriculture Minister Julie Collins backed that up in a statement, saying any decision to allow expanded access for US beef to Australia would be based on science and evidence and that "all products entering Australia have to meet rigorous biosecurity standards". Cattle Australia chief executive Chris Parker said the key issue that must be solved before any move can be considered relates to the traceability of cattle born across the US southern or northern borders. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that US agriculture officials are warning that ground beef sold at Whole Foods markets nationwide may be contaminated with potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria. Why did the Greens entourage cross Adelaide's Hindmarsh Square? Because they didn't see any television cameras. On Monday, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young scheduled a media conference to talk about "South Australia's drought and the Prime Minister's visit to SA". But when print journalists rocked up to hear what the Senator had to say, they found the square was bare. A quick phone call solved the mystery. The senatorial entourage bailed when none of the local television news crews turned up - must of all been up north following Mr Albanese around a drought-stricken sheep property. Nationals' deputy leader Kevin Hogan has slammed Labor's new super tax as "verging on the immoral", while the first policy position agreed by the Coalition's new shadow cabinet is to officially oppose the proposal. Labor's contentious plan to double taxes on superannuation balances above $3 million will be one of the first bills up for discussion when Parliament resumes next month, with a clear pathway to pass the legislation into law opened by the Greens which offered the government in-principle support earlier this week but will push for the policy to go further and drop the threshold to $2m. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked in a media conference whether it was fair that some farmers may have to pay the tax, and may end up having to sell their farms, as some of their farms are self-managed super funds? "Well, there's not anything new here. This has been before the Parliament for about two years," Mr Albanese said. "What we need to do is to make sure that our superannuation system is fair. That is what we are setting about to do." Treasurer Jim Chalmers' proposal, panned by economists, academics, ALP luminaries and business leaders since it was introduced in 2023, is to increase taxation on super balances over the high-value threshold from 15 to 30 per cent, including on unrealised capital gains. As it stands, the revenue-raising measure will not be indexed to inflation or wage growth. The situation perfectly illustrates why the words Canberra and chaos sit together so snugly. Around the grounds this week and the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party voted to walk back its support of net-zero, we suspect Alex Antic was somehow involved. The good people of Tasmania may be heading for a by-election after the upper house blew up the leadership of Premier Jeremy Rockliff. And a silly sexist quip made during a debate about gender quotas from the bloke appointed to run the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, Alan Stockdale, was a step back in time, or revealed he had never caught up with it. The lead balloon went down on Tuesday when Mr Stockdale told the NSW Liberal Women's Council that "women are sufficiently assertive now" and that the Libs "should be giving some thought to whether we need to protect men's involvement". The 80-year-old's joke was as popular as a few of the budgets the former Victorian state treasurer delivered for Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett. Stockdale apologised, however, party honchos were forced to spend a chunk of the week dousing the chaos the comments created, with federal leader Sussan Ley saying she "encourages assertive women to join the Liberal Party". Australia's fresh produce industry has formed a very healthy new relationship with The Wiggles for a national campaign to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables. The International Fresh Produce Association Australia campaign was launched at Hort Connections in Brisbane and comes as new research shows less than half of Aussie parents say that fruit and veg actually make up most of their children's snacks. The Wiggles have rolled out a jingle by rewording their classic banger 'Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy' to 'Fruit and Veggies Yummy Yummy'. Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said the collaboration was a natural fit. "We are so excited to be part of this campaign," he said. "With more than 30 years of singing songs like 'Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy' and 'Hot Potato', this partnership takes our commitment even further, really showing children just how fun and delicious healthy eating can be." Shire councillor Sherryl Chilcott sent ACM a video capturing the soothing sounds of large hailstones hitting a tin roof after being dumped from a thunderstorm that washed over Wagin, in Western Australia's wheatbelt, earlier this week. A month on from the federal election and it has been chaos as usual on the Australian political scene despite a truce declared on the main post-plebiscite entertainment in the Coalition's civil war and spill talk surrounding Nationals leader David Littleproud dying down. Meanwhile, Labor has hit the ground running by approving Woodside's massive North West Shelf gas project for the next 70 years, putting a big question mark internationally over Australia's climate stripes and stewardship of ancient rock art, and then recruiting a rogue Greens senator who had fought tooth and nail to stop the approval. In fact, Dorinda Cox really let the Albanese government know what she thought about the decision just days before jumping aboard the Albo train because, as all parties involved suggested, including Greens leader Larissa Waters, their "shared values" make the new pairing a good fit. After Senator Cox left the Greens shrinking parliamentary army, bullying allegations against her emerged, including a complaint lodged by former Green and now Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe. The prime minister thought had been resolved, but maybe not, awks. A highly unsavoury text message that Senator Cox allegedly wrote was then leaked regarding her thoughts about Senate colleague Pauline Hanson. Her defection also now makes it four seats the Greens have lost to Labor in recent weeks after former leader Adam Bandt, Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates were waved bye-bye by voters at the ballot box, a perk of the landslide election win that will provide Albo with joy long after he leaves office. Also waving goodbye for now is Liberal candidate for Bradfield Gisele Kapterian, who won the seat by eight votes after preferences were tallied a couple of weeks ago. However, the slender margin demanded a recount, the result of which saw Independent Nicolette Boele handed the seat this week by just 26 votes. She joins Zali Stegall, Allegra Spender and Sophie Scamps as the fourth Independent woman who has taken a formerly safe Sydney seat from the Liberal Party By the by, at least six MPs suspect their devices were hacked over the past year, according to the Department of Parliamentary Services via The Canberra Times, in what an expert says is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has released the parliamentary schedule for the rest of 2025, and it is a little light on for sitting days. In fact, people who know these things suggest the schedule is the lightest attendance requirement for parliamentarians to travel to Canberra for about 20 years. A very senior MP was so taken aback by the situation that they labelled the workplace a "part-time" Parliament. "I must Google this, obviously in election years we will have fewer sitting weeks than normal, but I'd love to know the last year we only had eight sitting weeks in Parliament," the MP told ACM. "It's really part-time, isn't it? Especially now with the whole not sitting for almost eight weeks after the election." There are always four sides to every story. The ABC quoted a government source on Friday morning to say that US-slaughtered beef was being positioned as a bargaining chip to help reset trade ties in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariff regime that has slapped a 50 per cent impost on steel and aluminium, along with the 10 per cent universal duty. US beef producers have been able to access Australian markets since 2019 if they can ensure that the animals are born, raised and slaughtered in the US, while restrictions remain on Canadian and Mexican cattle slaughtered in America. Australia has been undertaking a review of those biosecurity rules, after the Trump administration requested they be lifted. The media report said pork would stay off-limits due to swine flu and other risks, but the beef bit prompted Nationals leader David Littleproud to urge Labor not to compromise Australia's biosecurity credentials in negotiations with the US. "The United States uses cattle from Mexico and Canada in their supply chain that poses a potential risk to our industry and ignoring those risks would be dangerous," he said. Meanwhile, the PM said in a radio interview that compromising on biosecurity was not on the table. "We'll never loosen any rules regarding our biosecurity," he said. "If things can be sorted out in a way that protects our biosecurity, of course we don't just say no ... but our first priority is biosecurity.. When ABC host Raf Epstein prodded Albo a bit more in asking whether beef slaughtered in the US that was raised in Mexico or Canada would be allowed into Australia, the PM said: "Full stop. Exclamation mark. It's simply not worth it.". Agriculture Minister Julie Collins backed that up in a statement, saying any decision to allow expanded access for US beef to Australia would be based on science and evidence and that "all products entering Australia have to meet rigorous biosecurity standards". Cattle Australia chief executive Chris Parker said the key issue that must be solved before any move can be considered relates to the traceability of cattle born across the US southern or northern borders. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that US agriculture officials are warning that ground beef sold at Whole Foods markets nationwide may be contaminated with potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria. Why did the Greens entourage cross Adelaide's Hindmarsh Square? Because they didn't see any television cameras. On Monday, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young scheduled a media conference to talk about "South Australia's drought and the Prime Minister's visit to SA". But when print journalists rocked up to hear what the Senator had to say, they found the square was bare. A quick phone call solved the mystery. The senatorial entourage bailed when none of the local television news crews turned up - must of all been up north following Mr Albanese around a drought-stricken sheep property. Nationals' deputy leader Kevin Hogan has slammed Labor's new super tax as "verging on the immoral", while the first policy position agreed by the Coalition's new shadow cabinet is to officially oppose the proposal. Labor's contentious plan to double taxes on superannuation balances above $3 million will be one of the first bills up for discussion when Parliament resumes next month, with a clear pathway to pass the legislation into law opened by the Greens which offered the government in-principle support earlier this week but will push for the policy to go further and drop the threshold to $2m. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked in a media conference whether it was fair that some farmers may have to pay the tax, and may end up having to sell their farms, as some of their farms are self-managed super funds? "Well, there's not anything new here. This has been before the Parliament for about two years," Mr Albanese said. "What we need to do is to make sure that our superannuation system is fair. That is what we are setting about to do." Treasurer Jim Chalmers' proposal, panned by economists, academics, ALP luminaries and business leaders since it was introduced in 2023, is to increase taxation on super balances over the high-value threshold from 15 to 30 per cent, including on unrealised capital gains. As it stands, the revenue-raising measure will not be indexed to inflation or wage growth. The situation perfectly illustrates why the words Canberra and chaos sit together so snugly. Around the grounds this week and the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party voted to walk back its support of net-zero, we suspect Alex Antic was somehow involved. The good people of Tasmania may be heading for a by-election after the upper house blew up the leadership of Premier Jeremy Rockliff. And a silly sexist quip made during a debate about gender quotas from the bloke appointed to run the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, Alan Stockdale, was a step back in time, or revealed he had never caught up with it. The lead balloon went down on Tuesday when Mr Stockdale told the NSW Liberal Women's Council that "women are sufficiently assertive now" and that the Libs "should be giving some thought to whether we need to protect men's involvement". The 80-year-old's joke was as popular as a few of the budgets the former Victorian state treasurer delivered for Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett. Stockdale apologised, however, party honchos were forced to spend a chunk of the week dousing the chaos the comments created, with federal leader Sussan Ley saying she "encourages assertive women to join the Liberal Party". Australia's fresh produce industry has formed a very healthy new relationship with The Wiggles for a national campaign to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables. The International Fresh Produce Association Australia campaign was launched at Hort Connections in Brisbane and comes as new research shows less than half of Aussie parents say that fruit and veg actually make up most of their children's snacks. The Wiggles have rolled out a jingle by rewording their classic banger 'Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy' to 'Fruit and Veggies Yummy Yummy'. Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said the collaboration was a natural fit. "We are so excited to be part of this campaign," he said. "With more than 30 years of singing songs like 'Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy' and 'Hot Potato', this partnership takes our commitment even further, really showing children just how fun and delicious healthy eating can be." Shire councillor Sherryl Chilcott sent ACM a video capturing the soothing sounds of large hailstones hitting a tin roof after being dumped from a thunderstorm that washed over Wagin, in Western Australia's wheatbelt, earlier this week.
