Major projects test a city’s resolve. They make us weigh ambition against responsibility and ask what kind of future we intend to build for our community. The proposed Macquarie Point stadium is no exception. While the State Government is driving the concept, the Hobart City Council holds an important role in shaping how this development fits within the life and landscape of our capital.

Our duty as Council is to apply the planning scheme, assess infrastructure impacts and protect the city’s long-term interests. We ensure that the resulting structural and economic growth is handled with competence, not chaos.

A project of this scale brings genuine challenges including traffic and pedestrian movement, public transport demand, and the puzzle of where stadium attendees will park. These pressures offer Council an opportunity to advocate for practical improvements, including a multi-storey car park on the Queens Domain. Such a facility would do more than serve stadium crowds. It would relieve long-term parking pressure in the CBD, improve accessibility for workers and older Tasmanians, and finally acknowledge the daily realities of a city that runs on small business and service workers.

A Domain car park would be a legacy piece of infrastructure -useful on game days, but invaluable every other day.

But to negotiate effectively, Council must stay focused on planning, not politics. I have noted growing concern that the community perceives our Council to be drifting toward a posture of malicious compliance -following the planning rules so rigidly and creatively, that the planning assessment demands evolve into obstruction. This serves no one. It lengthens construction timelines, increases project costs and ultimately places more pressure on a Tasmanian economy already carrying weight it can ill afford.

Our responsibility as Council is to provide rigorous assessment, not ideological resistance. We must act in the interests of the whole city, not as an unofficial arm of the Greens Party or any other political bloc. Local government works best when it resists factional gravity and stays rooted in practical outcomes, economic sense, and community wellbeing. Hobart deserves leadership that evaluates projects on merit rather than on political posture.

Economic integration also matters. A stadium can bring life to surrounding businesses if planned intelligently. Without coordinated precinct design and supportive transport systems, major venues can overwhelm small traders or redirect foot traffic away from existing commercial areas. Council must ensure that whatever is built strengthens local enterprise rather than placing it under further strain.

Public confidence also plays a part. People want clarity, not chaos. They want to trust that decisions are made with honesty, not theatre. Council cannot resolve every question about the State Government’s priorities, but we can insist that our own processes are transparent, timely and tethered to evidence.

Some say Council should oppose the stadium entirely. Others argue that the State will simply override us. Both miss the point. Our influence lies in planning expertise, in negotiating infrastructure that benefits the city such as a Domain car park and in protecting Hobart’s long-term interests without indulging in delay for delay’s sake.

This is not the time for barricade politics. It is the time for steady stewardship.

Hobart can grow but it must grow with intention. If Council focuses on constructive planning rather than ideological conflict, the stadium can become a catalyst for wider improvements, not a source of division.

In the end, our duty is simple: safeguard the character of the city while preparing it for the decades ahead. Good planning not gamesmanship will determine whether the stadium becomes a genuine asset for Hobart or a missed opportunity.