Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania—Deputy Manager of Opposition Business) (16:16): I am pleased to make a contribution to this debate to give context to some of the things I have said publicly in Tasmania on this issue. It is something I feel strongly about, and I don't resile from anything I've said. I, with Senator Brown and Senator Lambie, and I suspect others in this debate, support Tasmania getting a team. We deserve it. We have a fine AFL history. We've provided some of the best players in the AFL's history over many years, and that's something we could continue to do with a team of our own, and with an AFLW team. I don't agree with the idea of the federal government funding a stadium, but I'm not going to let Senator Brown and the Australian Labor Party off the hook that easily. You can't come in and say that the Premier of Tasmania, Mr Rockliff, isn't listening and then say that you haven't made your minds up yet. The Australian government has to actually put a decision on record at some point. I look forward to the day that that happens, and going out and listening to the community is a good start to do that. I do want to make a couple of points around the stadium and the Tasmanian government. Any day of the week I'd back Premier Rockliff over opposition leader White, because the Tasmanian Labor Party can't even come up with a position. They've got to go and have a taxpayer funded referendum to figure out whether they support the stadium! They want to spend taxpayers' money to figure out what position they should have to fund a stadium with taxpayers' money. I tell you what, at least I know where I stand. Premier Rockliff knows where he stands. The Labor Party, federally and at a state level, don't know where they stand. I'll go back to a point that Senator Brown made which I do agree with. I know Senator Brown is a fine Tasmanian who actually does have her state's interests at heart—I know that very clearly—along with her Tasmanian colleagues. The AFL should take note: they should not treat Tasmanians as mugs. They landed an historic deal for broadcast rights—$4.5 billion. It's historic—self-described, private money. Why aren't they putting any of that into the construction of a stadium. Why aren't they being asked to fund this arrangement that would enable us to get a team? If it's so important to them, to the club presidents, for us to have a team, why don't they do something about it? Instead of asking the taxpayers of Tasmania to foot the bill— Senator Carol Brown: Why doesn't Jeremy stand up? Senator DUNIAM: I tell you what, Senator Brown, if you want to stand up and say that the Australian government won't fund a stadium, you do it today. You've got an opportunity—there's another Labor speaker—and I am looking forward to that being put on the record. But, if your view is the AFL should fund it, then make that clear in the next contribution and the Australian government won't fund it. We should be putting the asset as a united team on the AFL, as has been suggested by Senator Lambie, to fund the stadium. Let's get them to do what they're telling us we need to do and not have Tasmanians have to choose between whether they get Commonwealth funding for a hospital bed or a football stadium. Senator Lambie is right, and we should be backing this point. Gillon McLachlan and the AFL should be doing the right thing by every person who wants an AFL team. They should be funding it. That $4.5 billion sloshing around over the next few years could go to something good, like building a stadium if that's what they think we need to have. Having said that, though, Senator Brown was also right on the fact that we are the only jurisdiction being asked to build a stadium, just to have what everyone else has. They love picking on the little state. Yes, we have 12 senators and I think it's time we made our voices heard, collectively. The AFL can no longer treat us like mugs. If they have a really good case to make, I hope they make it. I hope they can tell the Australian government why using $375 million dollars of that finite resource, taxpayers' money, is better spent on this than on anything else—than on housing, than on more roads, than on hospital beds or on sorting out the scourge of family and domestic violence. If the AFL actually wants to point to reasons for why funding a stadium with taxpayer money is more important than funding any of the things I just mentioned, I would love to hear it. That's because when I go out and face the voters, they are not going to take the lines that the AFL might offer me. I'd love it if they had to go out and face the electors like members of parliament have to. But they don't; they can get away with seeking to blackmail our state. But we should not allow that to happen. The AFL should do the right thing and the Labor Party should make clear what their position is—state and federal.