Senators advise AFL to stay out of West Sydney

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By Pippinu, 27 Jun 2009 Pippinu is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: AFL, Andrew Demetriou, Paul Keating, Western Sydney AFL

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It was former Prime Minister Paul Keating who once famously referred to the Senate as “unrepresentative swill”, presumably at a time when the Senate wasn’t supporting whatever it was he wanted to do.

Apart from the final term of the Howard government, the Government of the day has rarely had the numbers in the Senate to push through their agenda, certainly since the political crisis of 1975.

That the Government of the day is never complimentary of the Senate should be a hint to all of us that in fact the Senate does a pretty good job at holding the Government to account (power corrupts; checks and balances; and all that).

Some of the Senate’s very best work, which is mainly invisible to the majority of Australians who are generally more concerned about how their footy team is going (a sentiment I understand completely), involves the work of the Senate Committees, who spend their time investigating the latest hair brained scheme being put forward by the Government (giving money away; building white elephants, pork barrelling etc).

The range of things the Committees look into are quite varied, including: gene patents; bank mergers; childcare; the welfare of international students; access to justice; bushfires in Australia; climate policy and men’s health.

In other words, stuff that actually affects the daily lives of all of us.

But occasionally the committees look into things that strike one as odd.

I’ve only just discovered that the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee recently completed an enquiry entitled: Matters relating to the establishment of an Australian Football League team for Tasmania.

Call me crazy, but this seems like a bizarre subject for our elected federal representatives to worry themselves about.

Part of the scope of the inquiry was to determine “whether the decision of the Australian Football League (AFL) Board of Commission to prioritise admission to its competition of teams from Western Sydney and the Gold Coast over a proposed team for Tasmania is fair and equitable.”

I would have thought a commercial body should be able to make its own decisions as to where it will focus its operations without having to worry about the equity of such decisions. It’s a bit like telling BHP to put its head office in Alice Springs in the interests of equity.

This bit is really interesting. An argument in favour of the AFL establishing a team in Tasmania put forward was to ward off the threat of soccer in that state.

I kid you not – it’s in the report!

This is the Committee’s conclusion: “Finally, the committee is of the view that the committee’s plan for a Western Sydney team are very ambitious. Although it is not the committee’s intention to tell the AFL how it should manage its expansion plans, there are cultural barriers facing a Western Sydney-based AFL team that appear to be insurmountable.”

The gratuitous advice from the Committee does not end there, the report continues: “There must be concern, however, that primary school-aged children participating in modified Australian Rules via school programs will not necessarily translate into meaningful support for the code.”

True enough. But that’s for the AFL to worry about – not politicians!

Friday’s Age quotes Andrew Demetriou as saying that the AFL would pay scant attention to the Senate finding that there were “cultural barriers…that appear to be insurmountable”, and fair enough, too.

Honestly, for a group of Australian politicians to suggest that a section of the Australian population will never, ever take to the great Australian game … it makes me want to suggest that they are better off getting back to investigating something useful, like gene patents.

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The Crowd Says (29) | Page 1 of Comments

Kurt said | June 27th 2009 @ 8:52am | Report comment

Pipps – this senate report truly is one of the more bizarre political acts of recent times. You’re spot on with all your points, I just don’t see how anyone could see this as a reasonable area of investigation for a senate committee. I guess in a way we should see it as a compliment as you really can’t imagine Federal parliament ever giving equivalent scrutiny to a-league, super rugby or NRL expansion plans. As you say, maybe the AFL push into WS is a bad idea, just as maybe Myer opening a new store in such and such a suburb is a bad idea. But how does this fall within the scope of the Australian Senate I just don’t know.

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Pippinu said | June 27th 2009 @ 10:54am | Report comment

Kurt
thanks for the comments.

In case you, or anyone else hasn’t seen it yet, there’s another post on this subject (left hand column – the official bit of the Roar!) that carries this story, and includes a few additional points I haven’t touched on.

The most important bit that I left out was that the Tassie Govt itself has distanced itself from this report, in a way saying: thanks, but we’ll take it from here. Theirs is a very pragmatic view – they can’t compete with WS and the GC on the basis of growth and strategic direction – they realise that – but they have positioned themselves to slot in as soon as there’s an opening (might be in two years, might be in ten years). They have become a rock solid fall back position – which isn’t bad as far as the AFL is concerned (in terms of their contingency plannning).

I don’t like to bag out Senate Committees, because my personal opinion is that they represent a bit of a bedrock of our democracy (even if the majority of Australians are unaware of that fact), but I think they missed the mark here by a long shot.

Given the reaction of the Tassie Govt itself, I’m left scratching my head as to how this got off the ground in the first place – who pushed it?? If it was a Tasmanian senator pushing it (and let’s be honest, there’s plenty of them in the context of their tiny population), surely they would have been fully aware of the Tassie Govt’s position and that they were going to side with the AFL on this 100% (as they have done).

If whoever was pushing this for an inquiry knew the Tassie Govt’s position, then they have effectively wasted taxpayer resources on a non-issue.

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Pippinu said | June 27th 2009 @ 10:56am | Report comment

Forgot to mention – yesterday’s Age had some other interesting bits and pieces about the make up of the Committee itself, at some point, I might copy these down in a post.

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Norm said | June 27th 2009 @ 2:28pm | Report comment

pippy boy
the good senators are far closer to the mark than you give them credit for.

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- Nicko said | August 11th 2009 @ 7:55pm | Report comment
  
  Western Sydney is a long way in front in 2 major areas.
  $$$ Business and corporate sponsorship, Tassie like Canberra just does not have the major sponsors to support an AFL club, what big companies are based in Tassie?
  
  Currently very players are drafted from Western Sydney, its population contains a large percentage of Australia’s sporting talent, with a local team constantly promoting the game at local schools more players will be spotted and drafted or placed on scholarships, a massive plus for all AFL teams and supporter which over time will improve the talent available, not dilute it.
  
  Plus Tassie’s population will not all jump onboard and support one team (as per any city or state) many already have teams.
  
  Reply
Midfielder said | June 27th 2009 @ 2:36pm | Report comment

Name the last time the senate got a business decision right … answers the question

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Dave said | June 27th 2009 @ 3:06pm | Report comment

Dave advises Senators to stay out of AFL.

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Pippinu said | June 27th 2009 @ 6:41pm | Report comment

Norm

the point is that it’s not the Senators’ place to be advising the AFL that they are about to make the mother of all strategic mistakes that will bankrupt them in 10 years time.

The fact that the Tassie Govt itself, who has already invested a bit in consultants fees, reports, busines case, etc, steered clear of the final report tells us everything we need to know about the merit of this particular review.

For the record, 3 of the 10 senators were Tasmanian, and the title of the Committee, which has a general interest in regional development, tells us all about what was driving the three Tassie senators, and it probably had little to with bringing footy to Tassie for its own sake.

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Dave said | June 28th 2009 @ 12:45pm | Report comment

The senate is not a true representation of Australia.

Tasmania, with a population of 500,000, has the same number of Senators as New South Wales.

Western Sydney has 10% of Australia’s population. If the AFL is serious about The “A” in its name it has to have a presence where the people are.

With a population this size. Western Sydney could easily support crowds of 30000 and at least 20000 members.

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Simmo said | June 29th 2009 @ 12:29pm | Report comment

was there anything wrong the Committee’s conclusions or the way it drew them?

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Towser said | June 29th 2009 @ 12:48pm | Report comment

Pippinu

There was the Senate Stewart enquiry into football transfers if I remember correctly in 1994. Not the first time the Senate has involved itself with sporting bodies. Probably more sporting interference if you delve a bit.

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