Lee rejects Chief Minister's claim a stadium won't fit on the Acton Waterfront site

The stadium war has ignited the ACT election campaign, with both main party leaders trading blows over whether the Canberra Liberals’ Acton Waterfront proposal is achievable.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr came out on Wednesday (11 September) to claim that the Liberals’ proposal would not fit on the Acton Waterfront site even if it could be approved.

Mr Barr also said that the proposed Canberra Theatre redevelopment and the Northside Hospital project would have to be cut so the Liberals could pay for the stadium and its convention centre plans, both of which are to be built at the same time.

On Tuesday, Mr Barr said a stadium was not permitted on the Acton Waterfront site under the National Capital Plan and a host of planning restrictions also ruled it out. Any attempt to change the NCP would be a lengthy process, up to a decade long, if it could be changed at all.

On Wednesday, Mr Barr said the Liberals had, in effect, shrunk the stadium used in their imagery so it would fit on the site.

Mr Barr said an overlay of an actual 30,000-seat stadium in its full breadth on West Basin showed clearly that it jutted out into the lake.

He accused the Liberals of not doing their homework before submitting their proposal to voters.

“Why are you proposing a stadium for a site that does not allow a stadium? That does not fit a stadium?” Mr Barr said.

“And why haven’t you thought about car parking and moving 30,000 people to and from? That’s the point of feasibility studies and due diligence.

“When you’re proposing to spend nearly a billion dollars, you might want to have done some of that work before announcing it.”

But Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said a desperate Chief Minister was clutching at straws to denigrate the proposal.

Ms Lee said the Acton Waterfront site was 64,000 square metres (6.4 ha) in size, 30 per cent bigger than the Civic pool site and 40 per cent larger than the sites for the comparable Parramatta and Townsville stadiums.

“Any simple Google search and overlay of these stadiums over the site should give Andrew Barr what he needs,” Ms Lee said.

She added that the Liberals had looked at the Parramatta, Christchurch and Townsville facilities and all would fit comfortably on the site.

The original plot of land for the Townsville stadium was 17 ha, but in Christchurch, the site was just 6 ha.

Ms Lee laughed off the claim that the Liberals had shrunk their stadium image to make it fit.

“Clearly, it is an artist’s impression,” she said. “It’s a very good indication of what it is that we’re trying to build.”

Ms Lee said the facility would require parking, but there were multiple parking options within walking distance in the city and across the road in Commonwealth Park, as well as light rail stops nearby for those without cars.

“We’ll work with designers to make sure that it is something that is accessible for the capacity that it holds,” she said.

Mr Barr said it was fanciful of the Liberals to believe that the NCP could be changed in time for construction to begin in the first term of government.

“It will take a very long period of time, assuming that [the Commonwealth] is supportive, which I think is a very big assumption to make because something on that scale in that location, it’s very problematic for all of the other elements of the National Capital Plan that have been entrenched in legislation for nearly a century.

“So I find it hard to believe that that will just happen because Elizabeth Lee thinks it will. There’s actually a process. I know detail, due diligence, and feasibility are things that some people don’t want to hear about, but they are necessary for large-scale infrastructure projects.”

Ms Lee brushed off the planning issues, saying the Liberals had good relations with the National Capital Authority and would work with it to resolve any problems.

Federal Minister for Territories Kristy McBain told Region that the Federal Government had not seen any details of the proposal.

“This proposal has not been submitted to the NCA or the government; we have not seen any evidence of a detailed costing or a business case,” she said.

“It does not fit within the current National Capital Plan. However, it is difficult to provide more analysis when all we have seen is a photoshopped image.”

Ms Lee said the proposal was already proving popular with the community.

“We’ve had enormous positive feedback since we announced our plan, including from people coming from overseas saying this sounds really exciting and can you keep us updated,” she said.

On Tuesday, Ms Lee said the twin convention centre and stadium projects would require a reallocation of infrastructure funding but would not elaborate, in particular, on the fate of the Canberra Theatre redevelopment and the Northside Hospital, saying she would announce the Liberals’ infrastructure priorities closer to the election.

Mr Barr said these two projects were in the firing line if the Liberals’ convention centre and stadium plans on the proposed time frames were to be paid for.

“So they’re either going to add $1.5 billion to the infrastructure pipeline and presumably to the Territory’s borrowings, or they’re going to cut projects, and the theatre and the Northside Hospital add up combined to about $1.5 billion,” he said.

Mr Barr said the hospital and theatre projects had the highest priority for the government, now the Canberra Hospital’s Critical Services Building was open, followed by the stadium.

He said the theatre was the first cab off the rank because it was the ACT’s oldest piece of infrastructure, dating from 1968.

The theatre also trumped the stadium because it would be in use far more than a stadium, even when it hosted concerts, with Mr Barr saying it would be a fantastic result to get 30 event nights a year plus day matches, whereas “there will be shows at the theatre hundreds of nights a year”.

“That’s why we’re in the middle of a tender process to procure an early contractor partner and will shortly be out in the market to build it.

“It’s really incumbent now on the Liberal Party, and indeed others, to say to the community, are you scrapping this project?

“Are you not going to proceed with the Northside Hospital?”

Labor remains committed to building a stadium at the Bruce precinct, with a completion date of 2033, or sooner.