AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan (Image: AAP/Private Media)
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan (centre) (Image: AAP/Private Media)

Your Say lets readers tell Crikey what they think about the stories we’ve published. Today the multimillion-dollar AFL TV rights deal brought you on to the field, and Labor gets a kick too.

On putting the boot into AFL fans

Brian Allomes writes: I have to agree with Adam Schwab on the poor treatment (again) of AFL fans with the next TV rights deal. As a fan living in Queensland, I can’t understand the AFL succumbing to pressure to exclude hundreds of thousands of free-to-air viewers so a pay-to-view company can possibly slightly increase subscriptions. One big advantage AFL has had over NRL for free-to-air viewers was always having a live product on Saturdays. Now it’s lost that and potentially a lot of fans, especially in growth areas like Queensland and NSW.

Tim Bryer writes: Executives of the AFL are indeed the big winners from the latest TV rights deal. The exponential growth in salaries of this clique contrasts with the battle of grassroots clubs — the game’s nursery — to stay profitable or to merely exist. Across the country, demands on club volunteers increase in communities more time-poor than ever. Yet the executive branch toasts itself as if it recently invented our great game. Its members need to be reminded that Australia’s native game has been a deep-rooted part of the fabric of communities for more than 150 years. That these mostly unremarkable executives ignore this fact and instead seem to pat themselves vigorously on the back (and line their pockets) while ignoring the contribution of country and suburban clubs is a disgraceful act of hubris. 

Terry Giesecke writes: It’s about time someone in the media analysed the negative side of AFL TV deals. The fans have been ignored for years; very few commentators have been critical. When that 2002 deal was announced I said to a friend that they would need to do well in NSW and Queensland for the television owners to recover that money. Well, guess what? The next premiership winners were Brisbane, Port Adelaide, Sydney, and West Coast. Port and West Coast have been the only teams to break through since then. I don’t believe in conspiracies, but it makes you wonder.

Trevor Webb writes: If you are a retiree and live in country Victoria it is even poorer as the first rounds are deleted from the free-to-air coverage. For many families and retirees living on a strict budget and looking to save wherever possible, even a Kayo subscription is beyond possible. It assumes a smart TV, adequate internet coverage for reception and the tech knowledge to adopt this service. We all realise the AFL has become a big business but it is still heavily reliant upon “tribal” support from long-term — in some cases generations — supporters who treat watching their team in many instances as “escapism” from their stressful day-to-day existence. This new approach will not engage future generations or new supporters, especially in the expansion teams. It is a total sell-out by the AFL for its own greedy wages growth. I’m furious.

On Labor moving to the dark side

Michelle Goldsmith writes: I am a registered nurse, married to a police officer, and we both stopped voting for the ALP way back in the aftermath of Tampa. I read Guy Rundle’s piece on the Greens with interest, having been an active Greens member since 2010 up until now in regional Victoria. I regularly complete the marathon of pre-poll and polling day volunteering in the company of left-wing Labor volunteers who tell me they vote Green 1, Labor 2. Rundle’s article is fair, and as a working-class nurse I don’t mind at all being classed as a cultural elite because of my Greens membership. As a teenager I was once called a “communist greenie bitch”, which I considered a compliment at the time, and regard fondly to this day.

Roger Lee writes: I’m certainly disappointed with some of Labor’s attitudes post-election, but it’s early days in the life of this government. The euphoria of banishing the LNP to irrelevancy is wearing off as a good enough reason to keep supporting Labor and I’m not welded on and can’t guarantee today that I’ll renew my membership when it becomes due. Whether I go Green is a matter for debate — but I’m leaning that way. There are too many similarities for comfort in my view between some of Labor’s policies and those of the awful LNP of yore.

Roger Clifton writes: We need Labor to remain morally clean enough to deride “offsets” as criminal accounting. As environment minister, Tanya Plibersek has the best scientific advice in the country telling her that significant carbon cannot be permanently vanished. That is, “offsets” are fraudulent. To keep Labor on track to zero emissions, we need the Greens to shoot first with “Fraud!” and ask questions later.

Gary Matthew writes: It is obvious the so-called plans Labor had for every problem with the country was a lie. Labor also said on numerous occasions that all its plans were fully costed. If so, why is it that every sentence from Labor members starts with: “We have inherited a trillion-dollar debt…”?

Bronwyne Bosschieter writes: I tuned in to watch the first question time to find politicians, including the speaker, laughing and mocking Bob Katter (who at least has decent questions and is worth listening to) and the new prime minister not answering questions — instead resorting to his get-out-of-jail-free card, calling a question a “slur”.  Although hopeful of progress, I see the new government wanting to treat others as dirt but demanding respect for itself. It has already let us down.

Dr John Nightingale writes: My vision is that the LNP will continue to shrivel, Labor will take moderate conservatives and shed its progressives to the Greens. I joined Labor after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and left before Bob Hawke had become the inevitable leader, voting Green ever since — not because the Greens were more pure and more dedicated to environmental repair, but because the alternatives were unsupportable. That is still my rationale, strongly buttressed by the Greens’ rejection of all corporate funding. Nothing good will come of our politics until corporate funding becomes illegal and individuals are limited to a nominal amount of donations to politics. And nothing will be possible until Australians pay taxes sufficient to support their demands for public services.

I suspect that I will be dead long before anything good comes of our capitalist system, shot through as it is with contradictions that doom countries such as ours to gross inequities in all aspects of economics, politics and society in general. I’ve no idea what might come next.

David McKenna writes: I have to disagree with Guy Rundle’s piece on leaving Labor. We can have it both ways. Stay in Labor, vote for it in the lower house but vote Greens in the Senate. Then hopefully we have a Labor government influenced by the Greens’ environmental and social agendas. Simple really.

Dave Bath writes: Joining the Greens of today? No. Vote Green higher than ALP? Probably — but only because I want a strong crossbench, a minority government. Because dealing with people high on purity politics is pointless and would be against the advice of all of my specialists. Dealing with those in branches who seem to prioritise identitarianism over obscene profits and the biosphere, even more so.

On Tony Abbott: a captain’s pick of diplomacy

John Gleeson writes: Thanks for the reminder of how lousy Abbott was during his brief time in the spotlight. It is no surprise he heartily endorsed Liz Truss — he will, after all, go wherever Murdoch goes. I perpetually wonder whether he actually believes the balderdash he spouts. If he does he needs help, but if it is just positioning he is a fraud. Anyway, don’t forget, Tony, that being a failure means never having to say you are a has-been.

Brian Allen writes: I can’t remember the exact circumstance, but Abbott as PM made a speech at a function during which he described someone as “the suppository of wisdom”, intending of course “the repository of wisdom”. He clearly confused the location of that person’s knowledge with that of his own.

On the ‘deplorable’ Midwinter Ball

Aidan Conor writes: The Midwinter Ball is absolutely a waste of time and money. Frankly, it’s deplorable. What does it say about our media class that it has developed such a cosy and intimate relationship with those it is meant to scrutinise? Do police hold functions with bikies?

I’m reminded of the recent election when Scott Morrison hosted nightly drinks for touring journalists. The fact that this wasn’t cause for alarm, and that many in the profession saw it as normal, eroded whatever minuscule shred of confidence I had in our major publications. I suspect a sizeable portion of journalists in this country have a general desire to be on the inside of our political institutions but lack the talent and drive to occupy power. Otherwise I cannot fathom why anyone who is seriously committed to journalistic principles would want to bump and grind with MPs (let alone when it’s sponsored by Shell and Coca-Cola Australia). People who care about the immediate material concerns of everyday Australians should not be dancing with those who are failing their responsibility to correct them. 

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