Daily Telegraph Editorial: Spending $2 billion on revamping our sports stadiums is a good thing

WHILE every major government expenditure deserves scrutiny, and governments should always make sure they have their priorities in order, those who claim that the stadium spend is excessive miss a number of key points.

SPORTS stadiums are more often the scene of great contests than the subject of them, but in Sydney, the battle of the sporting grounds is well and truly on.

On the one hand, you have the state government, and particularly Sports Minister Stuart Ayres, who are forcefully making the case that the city needs an urgent investment to rebuild our major sporting grounds lest we fall ever further behind cities like Adelaide and Perth which have spent billions building facilities to attract major events while we have sat on our laurels over the nearly two decades since the Sydney Olympics.

On the other are those who claim that the investment of about $2b is too much to spend on sporting grounds and that the funds would better be spent on hospitals or transport or schools.

But, while every major government expenditure deserves scrutiny, and governments should always make sure they have their priorities in order, those who claim that the stadium spend is excessive miss a number of key points.

An aerial photo of the SCG and Allianz Stadium. Picture: Mark Evans

For one thing, the planned $2b project to rebuild ANZ Stadium at Homebush and Allianz Stadium at Moore Park may sound expensive. But as Ayres points out, it is a fraction — about 1 per cent — of the $200b the government plans to spend on health and education while the projects are undertaken.

For another, it is an indisputable fact that other capital cities have spent big over the past decade investing in their stadiums and major events centres.

Melbourne has its Docklands stadium, AAMI Park and rebuilt stands at the MCG; the South Australians have rebuilt the Adelaide Oval; and Perth is about to cut the ribbon on a new $1.6b stadium.

ANZ Stadium at Homebush.

All this means that the environment for major events has become more competitive than ever, and Sydney needs world class venues as good as any in Australia.

This is not just a point of civic pride, thought that is important. Stadiums already put more than $1b into the state economy each year while one in 23 people’s employment is related to the events sector.

Shortsighted thinking by those who see a chance to score points against the government will only see these dollars and jobs slip through our fingers to more forward-thinking states.

POLITICS FOR NORMAL PEOPLE

SYDNEY’S new Deputy Lord Mayor may seem at first like a mess of contradictions: an environmental activist against WestConnex who’s also in favour of big developments like Green Square. But 33 year old Jess Miller just may be what the City of Sydney council needs.

New deputy lord mayor of Sydney, Jess Miller. Picture: Justin Lloyd

A mother and an amateur boxer and martial arts student, Miller’s anonymous background is a testament to the power of people to get involved in politics even if they’re not part of the “in crowd”. Whatever her politics, we reckon her call for “more normal people” to get involved can only be healthy for democracy.

JUNK FOOD’S BRAIN DRAIN

FOR anyone concerned about the state of our diets or waistlines, findings by researchers that junk food diets can change the way our brains work will be seized upon as evidence the industry needs to be restricted.

But the results should come as no surprise. Our human brains are no dummies, but rather the product of thousands upon thousands of years of evolution — with most of that time spent hunting and gathering in the bush, in jungles, or other hostile terrains where one’s next meal was a bit tougher to organise than pulling up at the next rest stop. That’s why fast, or “junk”, food can seem so attractive: It is a cheap way to get a lot of calories into the system, quick.

Teenagers Zara Hamilton 13 and Tom Clothier 13 enjoy an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits. Picture: Toby Zerna

This is also why fast food outlets proliferate in poorer areas, and why efforts to restrict access to the stuff is so often seen as a way for middle-class moralists to bludgeon the less well off.

While some people may seem to get addicted to junk food as their brains are “reprogrammed”, the good news from the study is that deprogramming them is not hard, either, with a bit of willpower and self-control in the short term delivering huge health benefits over time.