BEFORE the enthralling series of Super 14 matches started on Saturday night, I tuned into the 2020 Summit and watched the delegates putting forward their generally cliched ideas.
Aside from Rob de Castella and James Hird (and my boss David Kirk, wearing his Fairfax Media CEO colours rather than his rugby colours), there didn't seem to be many other prominent sporting identities and administrators among the trade union officials, MPs, activists, well-known artists, academics and ideologues posing as the "best and the brightest". Where were Liz Ellis, Andrew Demetriou, David Gallop, Kevan Gosper and John O'Neill?
Among the "big ideas" which were presented there didn't seem to be any which involved enhancing the passion and skill of Australians across the sporting codes to create a successful, egalitarian and cohesive nation through innovative sports programs. The delegates did not seem to have any understanding of the role sport played - and should continue to play - in the creation of the biggest idea of all: the idea of Australia.
There were national cricket and rugby teams before there was an Australia. The sight of Victorians, New South Welshmen and Queenslanders discarding their parochial colours and playing with total commitment for the big idea of a nation of Australian peoples was crucial to the creation of Australia on January 1, 1901.
Example: the first rugby Test played between Australia and England took place in 1899. There was no Australian anthem and no Australia flag in 1899. There was no Australia, in fact. The Test, won by Australia, coincided with the vote in NSW on Federation. In NSW, 107,274 people voted for the Federation Bill: 82,707 voted against. The majority of 24,567 was regarded as a handsome victory by the political class.
There were 30,000 spectators at the SCG to watch Australia play their first rugby Test. My guess is that the experience of cheering on a national team and the patriotic excitement the win over England generated must have convinced many of them to vote for a united but federated Australia.
Years ago I attended the launching at the SCG of Professor Colin Tatz's superb pioneering research into the lost lives of many Aboriginal sporting heroes, Black Diamonds. Mark Ella gave the keynote address which endorsed Tatz's big idea of using the passion for sport among Aborigines in the troubled remote areas, through well-resourced, regional sports tournaments, as a way of developing their life skills.
Lloyd McDermott was the first acknowledged Aborigine to play for the Wallabies. For some years he has run a successful program for Aboriginal kids from the bush based around a development squad of rugby players.
Instead of promoting these big ideas, one of the first actions of the Rudd Government was to break a commitment by the Howard government for $25 million towards a National Rugby Academy at Ballymore. But $53 million has been committed to a program designed to prevent binge drinking among young people.
Anyone who has followed politics knows this type of propaganda program will be a waste of money. It will join the Hawke government's $100 million to prevent heroin use and the Howard government's umpteen millions to promote Work Choices as exercises in how to waste taxpayers' money. Rudd has preferred spin, at twice the cost, to the substance of a Rugby Academy.
At the opening of the 2020 summit the Prime Minister talked about "letting in some fresh air" into the discussion about Australia. Hours after this speech the Waratahs defeated the Lions at the SFS and moved into third place on the Super 14 standings. With the rain falling, a Waratahs side with players of Aboriginal, Maori, Italian, South African and Pacific Islander backgrounds, with players from poor and rich families, and with players from the bush, from the cities and from the beach suburbs, subdued and then overwhelmed their tenacious opponents.
For me, this match - with its echoes of the first rugby Test - had the "fresh air" relevance about the big idea of Australia that the Prime Minister was seeking from the Canberra talkfest.
