https://www.smh.com.au/sport/barila...-VNAhcOQv9zPMUC1ImzZPd9DSmZRS05RVGeZ9pKJzB30s
I groan, you groan, we all groan.
No one, least of all me, wants to go back to the bad old days of #StadiumSplurge wars and endless columns back and forth, but ...
But it has to be said, and if we can both grit our teeth I'll at least make it quick.
The primary question, friends, is obvious. Is Deputy Premier John Barilaro barking mad?
For yes, as revealed by the
Herald on Tuesday, the leader of the NSW National Party has now said that even after knocking over the perfectly fine Sydney Football Stadium to replace it with a state-of-the-art new stadium, they now want to get behind the NRL in getting another four or five suburban boutique stadiums for another nigh-on-a-billion dollars or so!
Seriously, you couldn't make this shit up! For who would credit it? Could you please tell the folks, Mr Barilaro, what you said, one more time for the road, in a clear voice?
"The government has an appetite for the ground renewal program that the NRL has put forward," he told
Herald reporter Chris Barrett. "I think we're going back to basics, back to the past where that tribalism is actually what the competition needs in a way. We're seeing upgrades at Brookvale, you've got [the new] Parramatta stadium. If we've got an opportunity to do three or four or five more Bankwests, well that's got to be great for the game long term, great for the community and great for that competition."
Great for the game? Certainly!
Great for the competition? No doubt about it.
But can you get to the part about it being great for the community, Mr Barilaro, most particularly the vast majority of the people in the state who don't go to an NRL match from one year to the next, and who are actually in need of government help that has no glamour attached?
The points against this madness are so obvious I can barely bear to go through them again. But just quickly ...
The original #StadiumSplurge was pushed through on the transparent nonsense that knocking down fine stadiums and rebuilding them would help the economy. By the end of the process even the government had to acknowledge that was not the case, and the best it could claim – even as ludicrous as that was – was a 95¢ return on every dollar spent.
I made the point at the time, and stand by it that not one of the members of cabinet who signed off on that push would put their own money on a best-case return of 95 per cent of money invested, but when it was taxpayer money, no problem.
But still the government pushed forward that this was the right thing to do: put billions of taxpayer dollars towards providing key infrastructure for a sporting business that pays no taxes. So great was the outcry they caved on doing the same to the Olympic Stadium and got home in the election anyway.
But now the election is over, the new whizz-bang stadium is under construction at Moore Park, Mr Barilaro says the government also wants the NRL – beyond having huge stadiums in central positions – to have boutique stadiums in the suburbs?
Some questions for you, Mr Barilaro.
Is there anything the NRL has requested that you have declined to push?
Is there anything in the rural electorates you represent that you have supported with the same vigour as you have supported the big business of sport in Sydney?
We have seen your enthusiasm for supporting the sport you love, your eagerness to hand over taxpayer largesse. How are the arts going on your watch? How are the schools going?
I have previously noted in my columns how I received a letter from the Bomaderry High School P and C, Sue Cuninghame, expressing her frustration at the lack of funds to repair and renew the school's ancient infrastructure which saw it suffer severe water damage in the recent rains.
"I know we are a regional school," she said, "and maybe no one else will be interested, but when the government can spend billions to upgrade 20-year-old sports stadia, but can't find the money to rebuild/refurbish a 50-year-old high school in an underprivileged area, my blood boils and I feel something must be done."
Do you and the government, Mr Barilaro, have an answer for her on this one, and for all other schools crying out for support their own infrastructure? They don't get a zac, but you want the NRL grounds to have the best of everything?
Where is the Premier on this? Does she support this madness?
Enough. I am going outside, and should be some time.
Twitter:
@Peter_Fitz
