Pro-stadium opinion piece by Tasmanian public servant received input from Devils football club

John Perry entered Tasmania’s stadium debate with a 3,000-word opinion piece that argued the state could not afford not to make the proposed investment. At the time, Parliament had yet to hold its final vote on the Macquarie Point stadium.

Perry, Tasmania’s Coordinator-General, tried to quantify the broader economic activity that could result from the government’s promised $875 million spending. His projected economic return exceeded the government’s own estimate by more than six times. “Can we really afford for the State not to make that investment?” he wrote in The Mercury.

The stadium passed Tasmania’s upper house in December, two months after the opinion piece appeared. Perry’s office is primarily responsible for attracting private investment to the state, but his intervention raised questions about whether a senior public servant had complied with the State Service Act’s requirements to remain apolitical and impartial.

Emails obtained by the ABC show that the Tasmania Devils AFL club had helped shape and promote the work before it became public. Two months before publication, Perry sent the club’s marketing manager, Kathryn McCann, a draft version of his narrative as he conducted his own economic analysis.

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Can we really afford for the State not to make that investment?

Perry wrote that the draft still needed refinement. McCann replied that it looked useful and suggested they meet to discuss the “awesome” work. A month later, Perry presented his modelling and analysis to the club’s senior executives and chair. The emails show McCann praised the stadium work repeatedly during its development.

The following day, Perry wrote to Premier Jeremy Rockliff saying he expected to seek approval to publish an opinion piece based on his modelling, as he believed public servants were required to do. However, documents released under right-to-information laws did not contain formal approval. Neither the government nor the Coordinator-General’s office answered questions about whether approval had been granted or advice had been sought.

Perry also described his aim in several emails as being to counter public commentary that the state could not afford the stadium. He sent a draft to McCann and two drafts to Master Builders Tasmania’s chief executive.

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It’s looking very useful. Want to make a time in the next week or so to regroup on this awesome work?