Rudd scraps $25m rugby grant
Former Prime Minister John Howard announced funding for the project last June but Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner today announced the new Government would not be providing the funds.
Well that was on the cards – the wrong people play the game.
Tanner lays the cuts squarely on the Coalition;
Some of the former Liberal government’s last-minute spending commitments will be revised or abandoned. This irresponsible spending will be cut …….The grant was announced in the June so hardly qualifies as a last minute gasp from the Libs. Still, when you have the keys to the treasury benches you can say what you like. The ARU and QRU are not happy as they were told that it was happening. They have announced it to the world and now you can imagine who they’re going to blame when they announce to the Rugby world that it’s now not happening. If spending money on a Rugby Academy is irresponsible then the guys and gals at the AIS had better look for another berth. It’s the same sort of thing – can’t have sporting elites get preferential treatment. Other cuts include; Innovation ambassadors program, Flemington Racecourse’s alternative water strategy, advertising programs [for] the simplified superannuation initiative, Fishing hall of fame, The Growing Regions program, and drought relief to farmers . The ALP get the call but the word ‘reallocation’ keeps on springing to mind. Parallel cuts to the arts will, of course, stop me thinking that.
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Greetings,
The Coalition were a lot of amateurs compared to Ros Kelly of whiteboard fame. Here is what Peter Costello said in Parliament in Feb 94 about her:
“This affair saw this minister, who had a two-year program of $30 million, blow the lot over a three-month period. She cleaned out the whole fund that was supposed to last until July 1994, in a desperate effort to shovel funds to marginal Labor electorates prior to the March 1993 election. She got rid of the $30 million by the end of January and the prime minister called the election on 7 February. She delved out $326,000, on average, to Labor marginal seats while Coalition marginal seats got exactly half.”
The poor old Rahs-rahs; my heart bleeds for them.
At least the metropolitan members of the rugby fraternity have access to basic health services. I’ve just come back from a week in the St George, Thallon & Dirranbandi area where kids with disabilities can’t get access to basic physiotherapy services – the kind of services needed to ensure safe access to school. One of the major reasons that we can no longer attract therapists to the bush is that they can earn about twice as much per hour fixing up pampered and over indulged rugger buggers.
Kev, you need to find an issue that matters. Health services in the bush is one – and it’s got buggerall to do with political affiliation.
The fact that I got floodbound and chewed by sandflies hasn’t helped my view of the situation.