So much AFL cash, but what do the fans get?

Illustration: Jim PavlidisCredit:

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Broadcast deal
Who’s going to benefit most from the billion-dollar AFL broadcasting deal? (“‘Dropped the ball’: Laws slammed after AFL TV deal”, The Age, 8/9) The AFL will benefit. The AFLW will benefit. The clubs will benefit. The players will benefit. The grounds will benefit.

But there’s not a lot in it for the people who made this whole deal possible. The fans. The fans really shouldn’t be made to pay to watch their footy on TV. But sadly, if they are not made to pay, this whole deal would never have happened.
Ron Mather, Melbourne

Money comes from questionable sources
Given the uncontested association between alcohol consumption and gambling on the one hand and family violence and mental health problems on the other, what this new broadcast agreement means is more of the same. In its symbiotic relationship with media entities and alcohol and gambling companies, the AFL will continue to promote and nurture addictive behaviours that are detrimental to the health and wellbeing of people who watch football.

This, in essence, will be the AFL’s legacy to the broader community: its ability to tap into the rich source of revenue generated by corporations that traffic in gambling and alcohol.
Paul Papadopoulos, Preston

Help the ex-players
Well done to the AFL on the new TV deal. Great to see the average payments to players will rise from $389,000 to $500,000 a year. What’s not so great are the ongoing mental health issues faced by a significant proportion of ex-AFL players who are falling through the cracks and are experiencing a range of issues including depression, anxiety and addiction. In many cases, they are suffering in silence and do not wish to approach the AFL or clubs for help. There is a desperate need for an independent support organisation aware of the problems with professional sport to enable these ex-players to transition to a healthy future.
John Hennessy, Montmorency

Shut out by Thursday fixture
The AFL has with its Thursday night football fixture for 2023 virtually robbed country people or most families with small children from attending a selection of games for at least the first 15 rounds – especially if working the next day. I, for one, will not be watching.

Not a good return for the support we gave during the pandemic.
Michael McKenna, Warragul

Ticket fees add up
I have contributed again to the coffers of Ticketek. It costs $5.50 to register in the AFL grand final ticket ballot. The cost is not offset against the ticket cost if the purchaser is successful. Nor is the cost retained as a credit on a purchaser’s account against future purchases. With four clubs, perhaps 50,000 members for each club, there’s maybe as much as $1 million straight to the Ticketek bottom line. Ka-ching!
Ken Richards, Elwood

Being louder doesn’t make it right
All week, talk-back footy radio has been inundated with Magpie supporters blaming the umpires for their team’s defeat. But just because 60,000 screaming Collingwood supporters cry “ball” does not automatically mean it’s holding the ball. Having watched the replay four times, there were a number of instances where Cats players weren’t rewarded for good tackles. In other words, the umpires were consistent with both sides.
Phil Alexander, Eltham

Pain of ex-players
Your correspondent made a joke of the packet of white powder dropped by Wayne Carey at Perth’s Crown casino (Letters, 8/9). But if, as Carey asserts, it was an anti-inflammatory painkiller, I suggest this is evidence of the ongoing pain that many ex-footballers deal with daily, of which the worst is brain damage from repeated head blows. These are not laughing matters.
Thomas Hogg, East Melbourne

THE FORUM

Rate rises
Reserve governor Philip Lowe should resign immediately with no golden handshake (“Spotlight on Reserve chiefs over rates stance”, The Age, 8/9). He misled home loan borrowers when he said that rates would not rise till 2024. How wrong was he? Economics is not a science. He should have known that.
Roger Christiansz, Wheelers Hill

He never said it
Greens treasury spokesman Nick McKim has lashed Philip Lowe for saying that interest rates “would not rise until 2024”. But that is not what Lowe said. The RBA governor said he could not see rates rising until then. He didn’t foresee the war in Ukraine. Nobody can criticise him for that. Nobody can complain who read something into his comments that was not there.
Douglas Potter, Surrey Hills

Rate stance divide
Cherelle Murphy, chief economist at EY Oceania, implied that every economist would support the RBA’s current interest rate stance (“Let the Reserve Bank be unpopular”, Comment, 6/9). Well, this economist does not.

As opposed to wage-induced inflation, interest rate increases will do little to address an inflation spike that is largely due to exogenous factors, like Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. At least, not without sending the economy into recession, something that Putin would likely welcome.

In August this year, former Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin said that a higher rate of inflation is more justifiable when the economy was weak or in recession. We may not be in recession, yet, but even the federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has cut the growth forecast for our economy.
James Tucker, Greensborough

Voice distortions
Moves to undermine an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament are under way (“Wyatt seeks long lead-up to Voice vote”, 8/9). This is being led by Peter Dutton with implications that the Voice would have veto powers in commercial and political negotiations, that its structure is completely unknown, that it wouldbe the tail wagging the dog and so on.

The form of words proposed for the constitutional change make it clear that parliament would always have supremacy, that the structure of the Voice can be adapted as needed over time and that decisions made are strictly non-judicable. The Voice is a benign proposal based on decency and goodwill. It should be welcomed as such. It is not a threat, nor is it the whole story. Truth telling and treaty making are also necessary aspects of the reconciliation package.
Peter Barry, Marysville

Hardly a friend
Political developments in Solomon Islands suggest it is maybe evolving into Australia’s Cuba. While not enjoying popular support, under the Islands’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare there has been a drift to authoritarianism characterised by a secret security treaty with China, attempts to defer elections and antagonistic treatment of neighbours once deemed friends of the Solomons. The latest incident is that Australia’s offer of financial assistance to ensure elections are held as scheduled constitutionally is deemed an assault on the Solomon Islands’ democracy (“Solomons PM irate over election offer”, 8/9). Hardly the reaction of a friend orally.

Australia’s response to these developments has been less than robust. The government, along with other regional countries, should demand disclosure of the secret security deal with China and press for elections as provided by the constitution.
Martin Newington, Aspendale

Benign tiger
The words of East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta (“East Timor leader defends China’s regional role”, The Age, 8/9) ring out as those of a wise elder who has a long record of grappling with the ups and downs in establishing a democratic society. His words about China, “Idon’t think that China intends to invade anyone” strikes a chord that should be listened to in the dialogue that surrounds China’s rise to power.

Our understanding of China’s intentions are so often overridden by politically motivated intentions designed to create fear and brandish China as the monster that wants to rule the world. This conflicted attitude can only create greater tension between the two nations, forcing Australia “to ride the tiger,” into the loser’s corner.
Patricia Parkinson, Main Ridge

Israel and China
No, there is no reasonable comparison between Israel and China (Letters, 8/9). China is a totalitarian state carrying out a program that might fairly be described as genocide against an ethnic minority. Israel is a democracy whose citizens all have equal rights, regardless of ethnicity. It is also forced to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism. While it is true that formerly respectable human rights organisations have allowed themselves to be hijacked by activists to release manifestly flawed and dishonest reports attacking Israel, those reports have been explicitly rejected by many Western governments including our own, and endorsed by none. There is no equivalence.
George Greenberg, Malvern

Middle East democracy
It takes a certain, specific mentality to take any comment about human rights abuses and immediately seek to turn it into an attack on the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, which also happens to be the world’s only Jewish state – Israel. This is especially so when one considers how many genuine human rights abusing countries there are.
Robbie Gore, Brighton East

Lead by example
“Our main trading partner is involved in systematic torture. What now?” says the headline (Comment, 6/9). Well, Australia’s Indigenous population has the highest incarceration rate, lowest life expectancy (including deaths in custody), and lives with systemic racism. So “What now?” could perhaps involve getting our own house in order and leading by example.
Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn

Individuals take back seat
Like many, I am frustrated about the low wages, limited career path and lack of regard for the (predominantly) female care workforce, be it aged, disability or childcare (“Early learning educators call for pay rise”, 8/9). Yet, while governments continue to privatise fundamental care and support services; services once provided by community-based and not-for-profit organisations, the individual will always take a back seat to the profit margin. Staff wages will continue to remain low, employers will continue to focus on income generation and taxpayer dollars will continue to be used to prop up private companies. It’s crazy to believe that wages and working conditions will improve under a service model driven by the marketplace.
Catherine Healion, Seaford

Unions distracted
A number of recent letters associate the fall in union membership with the failure of workers’ incomes to maintain parity with inflation. The question that needs to be asked is, “Why did membership fall?”

I suggest that not all workers are happy when union leaders are more concerned with the latest cause than working conditions and pay rates. Nor are they too pleased when union donations are made to a political party responsible for the “red shirts” affair, and which tried to organise a Belt and Roads deal with China.

Unions can provide a useful service. When they focus on what that is then workers will see value for paying not-trivial union dues.
Michael Doyle, Ashburton

How much are they paid?
News at the moment is a non-stop story of people being “underpaid” for their work. I do not doubt the truth of that, in most cases, but we are rarely told what the protesters are actually paid. Footballers presumably are not on the bread-line, workers in aged care probably are. If we knew we could form an opinion.
Peter Valder, Toorak

Blinkered attitudes
The report on the “advice” given to schools by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (“Bishops tell schools to push back on transition”, 7/8) is both disappointing and embarrassing. As a Catholic I cringe at the blinkered attitude and lack of compassion by these men who should be spending time studying the needs of trans people and listening to those experts in the field. Instead, their “advice” includes that this “gender incongruity … is likely to pass with supportive psychological care”.

They had it all wrong in their view of and pronouncements on LGBTQ people; now transgender is in their firing line. How good to hear about the number of schools who are understanding and supportive of trans students. They need this positive approach, certainly not the misguided rhetoric of some Catholic leaders.
Jan Coleman, Glen Iris

Sad service
Those of us in the regions on the north-east line have long been subjected to slow, outdated and dirty trains as highlighted by Emily Day (Comment, 7/9). This is compounded by an increasing population, leaving standing room only for what can be a long trip. We are a voice in the political wilderness in agitating for a reasonable level of service.

Billions are being spent on an underground sweep to connect radial suburbs while the regions remain on a tired system well beyond its use by date.
Peter Finn, Tallarook

What do adults know?
Sometimes, it can amaze you how little adults know about kids. An example would be when they took away the outside bins at school; the adults thought it was a great idea and would stop people littering because they wouldn’t bring in rubbish. I still don’t quite understand their thinking but all I know is if there’s one way to stop littering it’s definitely not taking away the bins.
Anna Leuner, Northcote

And another thing

Nick Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios, you didn’t “let so many people down” (“Has Kyrgios dashed major hopes as well as racquet?” 8/9). You gave it your best shot; that’s all that matters. You graciously congratulated your opponent. You did us proud.
Kevin Burke, Mooloolaba

Illustration: Matt GoldingCredit:

Kyrgios needs to take a mini punching bag on to the court that he can punch the daylights out of when one of his racquets misbehaves, then give the offending racquet to a ball kid.
John Walsh, Watsonia

I wish for every racquet Kyrgios smashed, he donated 100 to children who can’t afford a decent one.
Susan Munday, Bentleigh East

Jobs
Those developing countries whose skilled personnel we are poaching should receive payment from Australia to fund education for their replacements.
John McNabb, West Melbourne

We pay more for people to care for our money than we do for people to care for our children. What does that say about what we value?
Beverley Martin, Langwarrin

Jim will have to be at his charming best to ensure early learning educators get more than pennies with their play-lunch.
Greg Curtin, Blackburn South

AFL
Maybe the AFL should pay tax. In fact maybe all religions should.
Graeme Henchel, Yarra Glen

How many times will Ross Lyon be considered for a coaching position, generate a media storm then decide not to proceed?
David Fry, Moonee Ponds

Furthermore
In reference to Dai Le’s dress, your correspondent says it’s a reminder “we don’t need another country’s flag flying over us”. Aboriginal people have been saying that for 250 years.
John Hughes, Mentone

It was necessary to get rid of the boom gates, but what about all the other road works? Potholes abound on all our roads and repairs are sorely needed.
Pam Swirski, Berwick

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