Time to hold fire on the lighting
THE Queensland Government, if it’s that way inclined, needs to resist the temptation to announce the funding for lights at the Gold Coast Turf Club on Magic Millions day.
There has been speculation in the industry that it might happen today. Why not?
It’s the biggest day of racing in Queensland annually and traditionally, those are the days you want to bolster the goodwill by using a captive audience to celebrate a political win. But there is just one problem.
The bushfires ravaging Australia right now are rightly in the forefront of people’s minds, with celebrities – including international stars – joining locals to raise funds to rebuild the lives of those who have been affected while firefighters work tirelessly on the frontline.
What won’t sit well with the average person, many who are already livid with government at all levels. What it suggests to the world, one disheartened by our current plight, is that you are giving $8 million to put up lights at a racetrack.
Or even worse, the entire $28 million the turf club has planned to get out of treasury for the club’s historic revamp.
It’s a topic that would have likely been discussed in backroom meetings by government officials and Queensland Racing hierarchy and no doubt it’s not an easy conversation to have.
Any announcement could well be lost on non-racing people in the plethora of media coverage of the Magic Millions carnival. It’s also likely those who haven’t kept up with the years-long bid to get the lights will think this is just a swift cash grab. It’s clearly not.
But is any announcement really worth the risk?
It doesn’t mean the revamp shouldn’t happen. The club should rightly have already been given the green light and have the money in their accounts ready to launch the exciting development.
It just doesn’t need to happen right now.
They could even confirm the funding but announce it once the nation overcomes the fire crisis, it doesn’t change the completion date.
Racing has come under fire in recent years, and late last year with the documentary showing racehorses being slaughtered.
It doesn’t need to tempt fate and provoke unwanted criticism during a carnival that has been so great for the city.