I am concerned about the Team Agreement signed by your predecessor and the Tasmanian Premier last year. I ask that you revisit the agreement and remove the requirement for a third Tasmanian AFL stadium. Two are enough. I support Tasmania having AFLW and AFL teams but not at this cost to Tasmania’s community cohesion, heritage, and economy.

I don’t believe that Tasmanian teams should have been conditional upon a new stadium at Macquarie Point because there are already two excellent AFL playing surfaces in the state. A new stadium is not needed, and its imposition at Macquarie Point by the AFL is completely inappropriate in terms of scale and form. It has become a most divisive issue and is turning Tasmanians against each other, even within the AFL supporter community. If the AFL wishes to promote itself as a community organisation, this is not the way to do it.

Furthermore, another stadium will impose an enormous cost on a Tasmanian economy that is already staggering under the weight of ballooning debt, a failing health system, educational outcomes that are some of the lowest in the country, and homelessness increasing at a rate of 50% every five years.

The AFL should never have required the Tasmanian Premier to sign away his state’s future for football teams. The contract is so inequitable in laying all the burden of risk on Tasmanians that it is tantamount to bullying by the AFL.

It’s simply unfair that Tasmania has to pay such a high price to enter the national competition - a price no other new teams were ever required to pay. I believe it’s in the interests of the broader AFL community that you renegotiate the Team Agreement to make it more equitable and to start to rebuild the code’s standing in Tasmania.