WHAT DO THEY DO?

There is a story in the news today that really intrigues me. On the surface it concerns the Commonwealth Games which will be held here in Melbourne in just over 100 days.

It’s in the news because the boss of the Games (under the other “ Mr. Everywhere” Ron Walker) is being touted for the top job as chief honcho for the London Olympics in 2012. John Harnden could be paid more than a million dollars a year if he gets the gig in London. He’s a former CEO of the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne.

But that’s not what attracted me to this story. When he accepted the job as boss of the Commonwealth Games project three years ago he came on board with a staff of 16. Now, according to the Herald Sun, he has a staff of 600.

My question: What do they all do? Six hundred people. I could run the whole of Melbourne with 600 people. I could go to NASA and send men to the moon with 600 people. Remember, this is a sporting event lasting two weeks. And they need six hundred people now? The bill for the Games has already blown out to more than a billion dollars. And it is your money, Ralph, as the old TV ad used to say. I mean, what do these people do every day?

Somehow it always happens when the word “ sport” is involved. Costs always blow out. There is featherbedding and sinecures. Olympic Games. Commonwealth Games. Grand Prix. They are cash cows.

I remember as far back as the Montreal Olympics in 1976. I lived there during the planning and the building. The corruption and money drainage there was so great that they never got to put the roof on the Olympic Stadium. In Sydney – despite its success—the costs blew out. And, typically, the State Government put on the rose-coloured glasses and claimed the New South Wales taxpayers weren’t burned that badly.

With the Grand Prix – which I think is great for Melbourne and I was living in Adelaide when Ron Walker stole it – there is still fudging on what it costs the State and therefore the taxpayers.

But I go back to the Commonwealth Games. How can you justify the jobs of 600 people? And I ask again: what do they all do every day?

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005