I noted a fortnight ago how the NSW State Government appeared to have hit ‘peak stupid’ in deciding to spend $2 billion to demolish and rebuild the Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Football Stadium, both of which are perfectly fit-for-purpose and underutilised.
Now, state MPs have revolted against the decision, labeling it “political poison”. From The ABC:
A petition on Change.org calling on Premier Gladys Berejiklian to “stop wasting money”, started by sports commentator and former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons, has gathered more than 62,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.
“We are tired of taxpayer dollars being lavished on building facilities for sports big business, while community sport withers on the vine for lack of facilities and resources,” Mr FitzSimons said.
Sports Minister Stuart Ayres has been on a media blitz this morning defending the decision.
He told ABC Sydney: “I think the key point for us is that over a 20-year period NSW has gone from being the best-placed state to host sport and major events in Australia, to just about the worst-placed state.”
Politically, it is dividing the State Government with many backbenchers seething over the plan.
The ABC has spoken to dozens of Lower and Upper House MPs and all bar one raised their concern about the decision, while their anger was palpable…
The Members did not hold back.
Some said they have received dozens of emails from constituents…
A number of senior MPs raised their concern about the narrative this creates for the Opposition.
“It will be used against us in every other decision we make,” one said.
“Labor has a narrative they can use every day until the next election … ‘you can’t have that money for the school but you can have $2b on stadiums,'” said another.
The growing resentment amongst Coalition backbenchers is the last thing the Premier needs…
One Liberal said: “It’s crap, there was no consultation with the party, at the end of the day we have to win an election, people want their schools and hospitals, not knocking down a 17-year-old stadium”…
These are the MPs needed to sell the plan, but it’s difficult when 98 per cent of them don’t support it.
When I first discussed this issue a fortnight ago, I labeled it a textbook example of the broken window fallacy in economics: akin to digging holes just to fill them up again. While the projects might create jobs and increase GDP directly, they will cost taxpayers a huge sum, won’t boost productivity, and will do nothing to raise living standards.
With Sydney suffering from chronic congestion and infrastructure bottlenecks, hosing $2 billion on dud projects like this makes as much sense as punching yourself in the face.
