O’Neills says events overhaul needed for NSW

Media reports over the weekend say that John O’Neill, former Australian Rugby Union and Soccer Australia boss, commissioned to look into the future of tourism and events in New South Wales some months ago, says that an overhaul is needed if Sydney is to attract fixtures away from other States.

Mr O’Neill has rated Victoria as the best-performing state for winning the rights to host big events, saying that relying on our natural beauty, our harbour and Sydney being the gateway to Australia, something former Tourism Minister often said was enough, were insufficient attributes to attract events.

Mr O’Neill, who in a report in the Sydney Morning Herald says spent 12 years dealing with state governments as the head of sports bodies, said Victoria had a winning formula for big events, with a major events budget of about $50 million, much of which was taken up by existing events, and its agencies had refined their ability to work together better than NSW had.

He said that like Victoria, NSW needed an independent organisation, a good budget and a direct line to the Premier and another good model was the Commonwealth’s Tourism Australia, a statutory authority, on whose board Mr O’Neill sits, adding, “If you look at the success of Victoria, they had a very well-structured piece of legislation, they’ve created a major events corporation, a very good high-profile chairman, good board good management team, good funding and access to the Premier”.

He also said that Jeff Kennett’s practice of turning up to lobby for sporting events when he was Premier of Victoria was a winning move and one that Peter Beattie in Queensland and Mike Rann in South Australia have also perfected, adding, “Mr Kennett’s appearance at a board meeting to lobby successfully for Melbourne to host a Bledisloe Cup game “influenced” people.”

Mr O’Neill said NSW could start by boosting events that are already established on the calendar, particularly the Easter Racing Carnival, with offers of money-savers such as better public transport, and crowd control, were often just as attractive as cash payments,

He added, regular fixtures that featured their geographic location, such as the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, Wimbledon, the Masters golf tournament at Augusta in the US and the Hong Kong Sevens had a quality that money could not buy.

In the meantime, The Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, last week taunted his NSW counterpart, saying that Sydney should have put its Olympics facilities to better use by bidding for the FINA World Championships of swimming.

Mr O’Neill also said NSW needed to catch up to the other states because they started honing their skills in attracting events in 1993 when Sydney was announced as the Olympics host, adding, “Because we hosted the Olympics all the other cities got off their butt”.

A spokesman for the Premier, Morris Iemma, said Mr O’Neill’s recommendations would be considered before the budget, adding, “The reason John O’Neill is there is to have a serious review and Mr Iemma will take his consideration seriously.”

The Mole attempted to contact the new Minister for Tourism, Matt Brown, to ask if Mr O’Neill’s report was available or if he had any comments, but it appears that it may be a week or so before Mr Brown gets his feet under the desk to answer such questions as it appears it will take some time move the news Minsters into their suites and allocate phone numbers!  What was that saying about Nero and fiddling!  The Mole also wonders what happens to tourism in the meantime?

The Mole also contacted TNSW and they are calling back and also the Premier’s Office and they are also calling back!

Report by The Mole