Editorial: Bring the First Test home to the Gabba

The First Test should be held at the Gabba, not just for tradition’s sake but because it gives Australia the advantage, writes the editor.

The first cricket Test each summer should be held at Brisbane’s Gabba – for tradition’s sake perhaps, but also because it gives Australia the advantage at the start of a series.

It was telling to hear England bowler Gus Atkinson say in Perth this week that “history would say it’s probably a good thing we’re not starting at the Gabba” – and Aussie spearhead Mitchell Starc declare his teammates would prefer to play the first Test in Brisbane too.

Why did it change? Essentially because of the ham-fisted handling of the issue by the former Labor government, which when the current deal with Western Australia was being struck, still had plans to knock down the Gabba to build the new Olympic Stadium.

The good news is that deal is due to expire after the summer of 2027-28, meaning the first Test in November 2028 could be returned to its rightful home of Brisbane.

It is good to learn cricket tragic Premier David Crisafulli might be working on that very plan.

We would support him in doing that deal with Cricket Australia – if for no other reason than Australia gets the advantage.

That homeground advantage is a reality that is at the heart of Test cricket. The tourists usually come up against a program – and pitches – carefully crafted to work in the home team’s favour.

The Gabba is our secret weapon. The last time Australia lost a first Test at the Gabba was in the 1988-89 summer against the West Indies. And as Test great Jeff Thomson – a Queenslander – told our reporter Robert Craddock yesterday: “Last time we were in England, the Poms took us to Edgbaston for the first Test where we normally play shit. Why wouldn’t we do the same to them?”

And Thomson was just one of the voices calling for this Cricket Australia absurdity to be reversed from 2027, as we have been reporting for the past two days.

Expect those calls to grow deafening if England win the Test that starts in Perth’s soulless stadium today.

Mr Crisafulli lamented the loss of the First Test in State Parliament yesterday. But those are just words if he does not then go and actually get the deal done with Cricket Australia.

The good news is that, due to a deal struck earlier this year by the Crisafulli government, the first Test will come home from 2032, at the new stadium at Victoria Park, which will have, by then, hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games. That is at least a victory for commonsense. We just hope that Cricket Australia will also come to its senses when it comes to the 2028-29 summer as well.

ZERO CALM IN DEBATE

Environment Minister Murray Watt used his speech to the Queensland Media Club this week to give the federal Coalition a massive serve for scrapping its net zero carbon emissions target.

How could he resist? It was the easiest of free kicks in front of an open goal. The federal Liberals had just days earlier decided – after weeks of divisive infighting – to abandon what more progressive voters have long-held as an article of faith – Net Zero by 2050.

This gave Senator Watt free rein to fill in the gaps and paint the Coalition parties as economic and environmental vandals, which, naturally enough, he did – declaring that walking away from the target would condemn Queenslanders to higher prices, expose them to more frequent and more intense natural disasters, and result in the loss of thousands of jobs.

Labor’s energy plans, by contrast would apparently lead to a carbon-free promised land, with thousands of new renewable-energy jobs and eventually cheaper power.

There was little hard evidence in Senator Watt’s speech to support these declarations. And that has been the problem with the public debate over energy policy for too many years – lots of statements and promises from both sides about how things will be, but with very limited supporting proof.

Both insist they are relying on the science to guide their approach, but ideology and firmly held beliefs verging on zealotry are clearly driving so much of what passes for hard-headed policymaking.

For instance, you can either believe wholeheartedly in human-made and potentially catastrophic climate change – or take a more sceptical view and risk being branded a climate change denier.

The reality likely lies somewhere in the middle between the various extremes embraced by either side.

But as Senator Watt’s speech reminded us, it is not in the interests of politicians to explore that middle ground. They are wired to kick their opponents at every opportunity.

Would it not be refreshing if every once in a while a politician took the time to explain, with supporting evidence and proper costings, what they were proposing and how they were going to get there rather all this point-scoring?

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Bring the First Test home to the Gabba