Was the Drugs in Sport presser involving the ‘Three Spinners’ – Ministers Clare and Lundy plus ACC CEO Lawler – the first of a new form of media conference, where performance matters more than substance, and ‘stars’ act out roles to media and viewer barracking? We shall see, says John Richardson, who also proposes a solution for all integrity matters: full-time minders.
Sport, played out on new stage
In declaring an ‘end to sport as we know it’, the only thing that the well-rehearsed trio of Justice Minister Jason Clare, Sports Minister Kate Lundy and ACC CEO John Lawler didn’t suggest in their melodramatic press conference about the new stage play, Drugs in Sport, was the possibility that the alleged illegal drug doping & organised crime links to Australian sport may be connected to the current ICAC investigations (‘Bombshell sports probe: drugs & corruption to ‘disgust’ fans’, Crikey, February 7).
Given ICAC revelations suggesting that former NSW Labor Minister, Ian McDonald, may have received illegal payments in connection with his past responsibilities for car racing in NSW, surely anything is possible?
AFL Chief Executive, Andrew Demetriou, thinks that employing integrity officers will eradicate the problem of doping & cheating in sport (‘AFL urges clubs: employ integrity officers’, Canberra Times, February 15th).
If Andrew is right, why not deploy his innovative management idea more broadly? Integrity Officers appointed to ‘pair’ every politician, priest, policeman, lawyer, union official, businessman & journalist across the land, would not only go some way to restoring public confidence in the crumbling integrity of our public institutions, but also potentially give the rising unemployment rate a nudge in the right direction.
And still more than 200 sleeps to go!
– John Richardson, CLA member, Wallagoot NSW