Sheer hypocrisy at

Ihave a pipe dream. On the first day of February 2020, Margaret Court walks onto Rod Laver Arena and presents the Australian Open trophy to Serena Williams.

The greatest player the women’s game has known hands over her title to the new champion. It would be a beautiful and symbolic moment.

Ain’t gonna happen. And it ain’t gonna happen because the greedy, sponsor-pandering popinjays at Tennis Australia profess that Court, an extremist Christian minister who believes that homosexual and transgender people are sinners, does not represent their views. To which we should all rise up and say two things:

‘‘You don’t have any views’’ and ‘‘So what?’’

The hypocrisy of Tennis Australia and the Australian Open is astounding. They take loads and loads of sponsorship dollars from Emirates, an airline that flies the flag for an Arab state where homosexuality is a crime. But heaven forbid that Court, an Australian who has won 24 singles grand slam titles, 19 doubles and 21 mixed, should be celebrated for her tennis 50 years after she won all four grand slams in a calendar year.

You may have noticed that the Australian Open also takes wads of sponduliks from ANZ, a bank that has just repaid a further $682 million to all the customers it has ripped off over the past 10 years. This is on top of the $1 billion it repaid over the previous two years to all the poor ‘mugs’, many of who could ill afford such losses.

It makes my blood boil, but Tennis Australia won’t give a toss about that either. Last week it made lower ranked players compete in conditions on a day when the citizens of Melbourne were warned to keep their pets inside because of the heat and smoke. That’s right, the moral guardians at Tennis Australia made the also-rans go out in conditions you literally wouldn’t expose your dog to.

And when I see Craig Tiley, the CEO of this mob, I am reminded of Carker in Charles Dickens’ Dombey and Son. Carker went around with a great feline grin of ingratiation, while doing all sorts of deals. How dare he say Tennis Australia has views. How authoritarian is that? It is a business. It doesn’t have views. It should be all inclusive and I mean ‘‘ALL’’.

Now I don’t know Tiley and he may be a deeply moral and decent man. If so, he should start behaving like one. That means treating all players the same, and not broiling the lower ranks while anointing Roger Federer in air conditioned splendour. That means not ostracising the greatest women’s player in Australian history, a trailblazer who was the first Australian woman to win a Slam, while taking the filthy lucre of corporations that treat their workers and customers like cattle.

I was privileged to be at a house concert on Saturday night where a touring North American singer held the room. In the second half of his set, Scott Cook launched into a protest song which he has yet to release. But when he does, I hope we hear some thunder around the world. It was mighty stuff. And here is a taste of the lyrics.

I love this country, I love the people and the land

But there’s a lot of stuff happening that I can’t understand

We got billions for bailouts, we got trillions for wars.

But it’s hard for working people to make a living anymore.