World Youth Day presents its bill
Editorial; 22/4/08
Sydney may well love a party. However, the fiscal hangover of the 2000 Olympics should have focused our attention on the benefits of handing party planners a realistic budget very early on. Documents obtained by the Herald reveal the upcoming Catholic World Youth Day extravaganza - the biggest event Sydney has seen since the Olympics - will cost NSW taxpayers $86 million just in operational expenses. That’s before we factor in the extraordinary $42 million cheque demanded by the Australian Jockey Club to compensate the racing industry for the imposed day off at Randwick Racecourse. Then, there’s the as yet unknown cost of locking down the city centre. If the APEC summit is anything to go by, that bill will be considerable. What Sydney gets in return is a brief return to the glory days of 2000, when the thousands of extra trains and buses, backed by legions of police, officials and volunteers, turned the city into a sunny, generous metropolis, capable of efficiently moving and accommodating huge crowds.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/editorial/index.html
Tags: Australia, Christianity