Canberra Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee has described the costings of a new city stadium provided by Yvette Berry in response to a question on notice as downright bizarre and without basis.

Ms Berry has claimed that the cost of building a new stadium in the city would be almost $3 billion, despite the ACT Government estimating a cost of $582 million just three years ago, in 2021.

“The Deputy Chief minister must explain where the 400 per cent increase has come from or if she has misled the Assembly and made up the figure without any basis,” Ms Lee said.

“If infrastructure costs have indeed increased by 400 per cent in three years as claimed by the Minister then it is incumbent on the Chief Minister to tell Canberrans how he will now fund his infrastructure pipeline of work previously costed at over $8.5billion. Based on Ms Berry’s updated costings, this equates to $34billion of total infrastructure spending.

“This response from the Minister highlights that the Labor-Greens government know their Bruce stadium plan is woefully inadequate and does not have the support of the sporting codes or the community.”

Recent stadiums built around the country include Parramatta Stadium ($360 million), and Sydney Football Stadium ($828 million) as well as Christchurch Stadium ($625 million) in New Zealand.

“The Minister must table all the costings to give full clarity and transparency on how she has come to this bizarre figure which would make a new Canberra city stadium among the most expensive in the world.

“It is clear this response is politically motivated and a desperate move from a government that is out of touch, out of ideas, and struggling to sell Canberrans on their poorly conceived policies,” Ms Lee concluded.