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AFL 2025

Opinion

Tim Harcourt Economist September 17, 2025 — 6.32pm

The Tasmanian Planning Commission’s report into the Macquarie Point stadium could restart a showdown between factions that would rip Tasmania apart.

With a focus mainly on cost and location, the report, released on Wednesday, advised against building the stadium, in no uncertain terms.

The AFL has made a roofed stadium a condition of entry to the league for the Tasmania Devils, long a point of contention between pro- and anti-stadium factions. Now, this report threatens to reignite the debate; like pulp mill or salmon protests in the past, the rift could cause real harm to social cohesion in the state.

But this is bigger than just construction of a venue.

Rather than taking a binary approach to t

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