Years ago, when the Sydney Morning Herald used to publish my letters, I commented several times on the absurd situation when the taxpayers had to pay for the training of hundreds if not thousands of sports stars for nothing , while academic “stars” had to enter into a hex scheme so that they could pay for their courses later. It struck me as being unfair that many, if not most, of our sporting heroes finished up living overseas, making enormous sums of money, contributing nothing, (not even taxes) back to Australia.
Meanwhile our science, medicine, arts, etc graduates, who had to pay for their courses, contributed a great deal of their skills to Australians’, as well as the world’s health and welfare.At last, it appears that the Government has woken up to the fact that most of our sportspersons contribute nothing except to the needs of the couch potatoes who seem to regard themselves as “sportsmen.”
Sports Minister Kate Ellis has said that “There are questions in the community whether the very top bracket should be contributing back to their sport.”
Good question, Minister, but why only the top bracket? After all, even those who don’t top their university courses, still have to pay for them . The taxpayers spend millions on sport. What do the non participants get back for their money?
After what’s going on within the ranks of some of the Athletes and RL players, they can’t even claim to be “ambassadors” for Australia!
