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Councillors: stampeded by debt hysteria and an
ideologically-driven
Government into a panic stricken headlong rush to flog off $750
million
worth of public assets
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The headless chooks of the Christchurch City Council
(specifically the eight Councillors, including the Mayor) have allowed
themselves to be stampeded by debt hysteria and an ideologically-driven
Government into a panic stricken headlong rush to flog off $750 million worth
of public assets.
The excuse given for asset sales is that they are necessary to
pay for the city’s rebuild, and specifically for the white elephant anchor
projects foisted by the Government on the people of Christchurch, under the
onerous Cost Sharing Agreement signed between the Government and the previous Council
(which was thrown out by disgusted Christchurch voters in 2013).
The whitest and most elephantine of these white elephants is the
proposed covered rugby stadium, to which the Council is committed to paying
$253 million. The justification for this is that it will guarantee Christchurch
getting into the big boys’ club of international rugby venues.
No, it won’t.
For that we have the word of the most impeccable authority – the
NZ Rugby Union, which is continuing its long and dishonourable tradition of
treating rugby fans and the wider public with contempt.
It has just announced the itinerary for the 2017 Lions tour of NZ. And for the first time in more a century the Lions won’t play the All
Blacks in a test anywhere in the South Island.
The Rugby Union says that Christchurch’s current “temporary”
rugby stadium couldn’t handle a game of that magnitude. Predictably that led to
handwringing from the Canterbury Rugby Union saying this shows that we need the
new covered stadium ASAP.
But, wait there’s more.
The NZ Rugby Union has not just vetoed any Lions test in
Christchurch but also in Dunedin. Huh? Dunedin has the country’s only covered
rugby stadium, completed as recently as 2011, at ruinous cost to its ratepayers
and amidst great public controversy. Furthermore, Dunedin is a fully
functioning city, unaffected by any earthquake or similar natural disaster (not
to mention the home of the current Super Rugby champions). But, no, the NZ
Rugby Union says that the Forsyth Barr stadium is neither here nor there, the
problem is that Dunedin itself is not up to handling an event of such
magnitude. So, two Lions tests have been awarded to Auckland and one to
Wellington.
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The Christchurch City Council: pull the plug on this particular
white elephant
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Press sports writer Tony Smith says it best: “(The Rugby Union’s)
rationale is proof, if ever it was needed, that All Blacks rugby is a brand,
first and foremost and a sport, with all its rich traditions second. How long
before Eden Park becomes NZ Rugby’s national stadium? How long until someone in
a shiny suit points out ‘the England rugby team never plays outside Twickenham,
so get used to the All Blacks playing all their big games in
Auckland’?...Remember the movie adage: ‘If you build it, they will come’? Well,
NZ Rugby has changed the script. ‘Not if you build it in Dunedin’. Dunedin’sbeleaguered ratepayers have paid for the best sports stadium in New Zealand.
There’s an inherent responsibility for rugby to play its part in helping
Dunedin to recoup the cost of its investment”.
The Christchurch City Council needs to learn from Dunedin’s
predicament before it’s too late, pull the plug on this particular white
elephant, and save the ratepayers of Christchurch a cool quarter of a billion
dollars. The message couldn’t be clearer from the NZ Rugby Union – “sorry,
South Island, it doesn’t matter how many covered stadiums you build at your own
expense, you suffer from a terminal case of ‘not Auckland syndrome’”.
The Rugby Union is a big business; let it pay for a covered
stadium in Christchurch if it’s so keen on the idea.
The city has got a perfectly good temporary stadium in Addington
and the possibility of repairing the quake damaged Lancaster Park, the city’s
famous rugby ground, which is already owned by the Council.
The City Council should see this as the perfect opportunity to
renegotiate that increasingly ridiculous Cost Sharing Agreement with the
Government.
And scrap the asset sales that are looking more unnecessary with
every passing day.
