Do You Want A Rugby Stadium?

[frontrow]

Come to Yanchep mate, watch it on the big screen with me and 18mth old Austin, 62 inch screen and all....

[Jehna]

Congratulations Jenha; if your mentioning rectangular stadia you may want to bring it up in the context of Asian or Asean intergration: if Australia is to get serioius about interaction with Asian nations we need international standard rectangular stadia (push from the soccer angle as that actually has more clout) then angle in the international Asian nations that play rugby (either 15 many or 7's). Just a thought.

Have a great time and remember to have some fun in between hard work and learning.

That was one of the angles i was going for....though the opportunities for better views of cheerleaders is another....tossing up between the two atm

[Thequeerone]

Jehna can you also ask Howard Why in the age of bumper revenue from mining we are being held to ransom over a hospital - sure McGinty said you could have a hospital or a stadium confused about the federalism thing why is it so hard to get a decision - Carpenter always blames Feds and Abbot always blames states - if we got rid of the blurred lines of responsibility and duplication of effort would we have enough monies left for 2 stadiums - several northbridge tunnels and decent public transport to the new stadiums from our pubs of choice

[hopep]

Howard has been blaming the states for everything since the 70's when he was Fraser's treasurer - headed the 'razor gang' that slashed all funding.
He has a centralist philosphy and as such is not genuinely intersted in infrastructure development at all.
Don't wait for many favours from Canberra.

[jargan83]

states blame the feds, feds blame the states................ what came first the chicken or the egg??? :s

[AndyS]

The rooster.

[Flamethrower]

The Egg!!! .....................ummmmmmm No the Chicken!!!!!!!!!!




No wait...........................The Egg




Oh Bugger it!!

They've both gone rotten. I hate that question

[Jehna]

Jehna can you also ask Howard Why in the age of bumper revenue from mining we are being held to ransom over a hospital - sure McGinty said you could have a hospital or a stadium confused about the federalism thing why is it so hard to get a decision - Carpenter always blames Feds and Abbot always blames states - if we got rid of the blurred lines of responsibility and duplication of effort would we have enough monies left for 2 stadiums - several northbridge tunnels and decent public transport to the new stadiums from our pubs of choice

In all seriousness we do need another hospital. The ridiculous thing though is the govenrment have agreed to hold that money in trust for 5 years....given that their term doesn't extend that long its a complete farce. They're hoping they won't have to deal with either issue.

As for the federalism thing, it shouldn't be hard to get a decision in theory. Powers are generally divided clearly with some overlap in certain areas but not the ones we're considering here. The problem comes with money. The federal government over the years have put themselves in a position where they receive most revenue. The revenue raising capabilities of states are limited to land taxes, rates etc. Thus, they are reliant on the federal government for almost 70% of their spending. The federal government can offer grants in two forms 1. General grants - they give money to states to do what they like with it; or 2. Specific grants - they give money to the states to carry out a specific task. Now you can imagine how often situation one comes around so basically we end up with a sitaution where the federal governmetn can indirectly control state actions via money, yet can cop out of repsonsibility by claiming its a state power - henced why we can't get a decision and it becomes a game of table tennis trying to pass the buck of responsibility - welcome to politics. It also means that federal governments are in a position of blackmail with state governments...so essentially we should be grateful anything gets done

The only option we really have is for the state government to contract a third party. We've got to hand this issue over to the big business if we actually want something to get done - and by god, we have enough of them here to do it...


But of course...this is all just my ignorant and inexperienced take on politics after studying it for 7 years and writing a thesis on it this year...so don't take my word for it

[Jehna]

I fly out tomorrow so any last min things let me know

[Darren]

Good Luck, Jehna!! Do us proud

[JediKnight]

Safe travels Jehna. Have a great time & don't visit any strip joints like a certain leader of the opposition did in NYC!!!!

[Jehna]

Oh man...i'm so sick of politicians...kill me now! Just to update, i've now had little fireside chats with Johnny (once i got past the ridiculous APEC security in Sydney....freaking George Bush), and then in Canberra I saw Kevin, George Brandis, Alexander Downer, Ian MacFarlane, Philip Ruddock and Joe Hockey. Tomorrow I've got Brendan Nelson, Chris Evans, Arch Bevis, and Kate Lundy.

I'm sure no one cares much about most of what was discussed but as promised I did raise the rectangular rugby stadium I spent a good 45mins chatting with Johnny about it. I think he thought i was a moron at first because apparently rectangular stadiums aren't necessarily considered to be high on the agenda for youth concerns (especially after we'd been chatting about APEC, Climate Change and IR laws prior to that. But, never fear I did enlighten him greatly. We even had a chat about Andrew Johns and drugs in sport, and the benefits of being able to hear the players on the field Apparently being the PM and sitting in a corporate box means he didn't quite realise the benefits!

Long story short, he wants me to write a proposal for the federal govt. I was pushing for a federal govt specific grant under s92 of the Constitution as a means of forcing the state government to take action but allowing the federal government to dig its claws into another area of state business. So I'm throwing the floor open to you guys for your thoughts and comments. I will be contacting RugbyWA when i get back about it. Basically we need a proposal which will benefit the federal government if we want them to fund the stadium, but we need to make it look like its not blackmail I have my ideas but I'm totally open to suggestion.

George Brandis is pretty keen to hear what we've got to say as well so we've got some of the key actors on board. I'll run things by the relevant shadow ministers tomorrow as well and see if i can get their support - i feel its pretty essential given the way opinion polls are heading atm.

It may be a lost cause but I'm thinking that Johnny asking me to put things in writing has to be a good sign...either that or he just told me that to shut me up and get me out of his office after 3hrs so he could go and welcome George Bush....no wait he didn't actually do that anyway...he went to the rugby league awards night...meh same difference

[frontrow]

Well done jenha, keep at the pollie bastards....And definately get the labour party on board as i reckon change is a comin'....

[Brizzo]

I have no doubts in my mind...especially after the Force were made to alter their competition seasons with the Crusaders to make way for the "possibility" of a home final for the Eagles or Dockers in the A.F.L's preseason...that the Force require a new purpose built stadium to have autonomy over their Rugby games and the wellbeing of the players.

The A.F.L. have flexed their muscle to protect ratings revenue and audience numbers for the biggest sport in Australia. The state government was powerless to stop this move and even the W.A.F.C. couldn't do anything to convince the A.F.L. that making the Force play in the hight of summer at the hottest part of the day is a less than wise thing to do.

By doing this the A.F.L. have probably guaranteed that the W.A.R.U. (and the Perth Glory) will look more seriously at a redevelopment of Members Equity, and the Force have a few cards up their sleeve that the A.F.L. can't match and can be used in convincing the Carpenter government to spend the cash.

1) Rugby is not the biggest game in Australia, but it is the second biggest in the world and is played in over 95 countries.

2) The Super 14 competition is shown in over 41 nations and in to over 10 million households outside of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The advantages above bring in substantial dollars in to the W.A. economy through tourism (4.9 billion dollars last financial year). On top of that the international broadcasting of the Forces home games compliments the millions of dollars the government spends internationally every year in promoting the state as a holiday destination and increasing the profile of Western Australia on the INTERNATIONAL STAGE.

It is in the state governments best interest to help foster Rugby in W.A. To do this they need to capture the passion, spirit and fire of a force game which would be impossible if you spread 27,000 people out in a 100,000+ seat stadium. that would be like watching a W.A.F.L. final at Subi (oh they do that don't they). We all know that Subiaco is not a good place to watch Rugby and talk of elaborate retractable seating and other measures won't help us.

Sure build the Super Stadium for A.F.L., Cricket, World Cups etc but at the end of the day this provincial competition needs a 35,000 seat stadium built around a rectangular pitch with the potential to be expanded to 50,000 in 20 years.

I'm sure Carps will see the light. And if he doesn't then I'm sure little Johnny will help out. He said he loves the Wallabies as much as the Australian cricket team...and he has just given a combined 11 million dollars to W.A. Cricket and the Bradman museum to ensure cricket continues in this state. Surely he throw some of the budget surplus our way!

[Skiza]

Great first post!!!! Welcome to the site!