Footy and the V8s are one thing – but teaming up with murderous regimes is appalling | Michael McGuire
Hospitals and child protection in tatters, an energy crisis – now the Premier’s using a barbaric nation for his latest distraction, writes Michael McGuire.
Opinion
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So how much South Australian taxpayer money is being sent to the murderous, blood-soaked tyrannical rulers of Saudi Arabia?
Premier Peter Malinauskas’ increasingly bread-and-circuses government has landed on golf as his next major distraction for the masses following the V8s and the footy.
Maybe he thinks it will take our minds off half of Adelaide being blacked out, a child protection system in tatters and a health system he is failing to ‘fix’.
You could make an argument for the cars and the footy but bringing to town an event funded by the people who murdered and dismembered journalist Jamal Khashoggi because they didn’t like his reporting is something else.
A dictatorial state that has no room for freedom of expression, has no time for women’s rights or gay rights and executed 67 people last year, really shouldn’t be allowed to launder its horrific reputation through sport.
It’s also a state that has funded a brutal civil war in Yemen, which has contributed to the deaths of 377,000 people.
Sport has become increasingly attractive to countries looking to clean up messy reputations. This month’s World Cup being held in Qatar is equally horrendous.
In defending his sucking up to Greg Norman and his Saudi backers, Malinauskas said “the simple truth is this is a an unparalleled opportunity for our state and our country in a way that is utterly appropriate’’.
The simple truth, Premier, is that South Australia is now joined at the hip to a murderous, barbaric regime looking to use suckers such as you to persuade the world they are OK really.
No amount of supposed tourist dollars is worth that.
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