Did anybody watch Q&A last night? What a complete waste of time. I gave up at ten o’clock because if there is one thing that I don’t want to watch more of it’s five Australians agreeing with each other about how great elite sport is and how it’s worth all the money we throw at it. And someone on the panel actually said that the Delhi Games had given the city (as if the money had fallen from the sky ) “badly-needed infrastructure.”
Was this the best panel that our ABC could assemble to discuss sport? For the record it consisted of Lisa Forrest who used to be swimmer and whom I remember winning gold in Brisbane in ’82, and Geoff Lawson the former test cricketer and now commentator. There was also Roy Masters who writes and commentates about Rugby League, I gather, (we don’t hear a lot of him in the South) and Mark Arbib and Kelly O’Dwyer representing Australian politics.
God what a bore. Couldn’t they have found one person who is appalled at how much money is poured into elite sport? What about one person who doesn’t really like sport that much and has interesting things to say about how our relentless focus on it is damaging to our society and our well-being? Not that I’m saying that, mind you. But if you’re going to have a panel discussion you’ve got to have a bit of conflict, a bit of spark, and I must say my heart sank when this panel was unveiled just after Media Watch.
Ah, well, early to bed with Paul Kelly’s book.
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