Brian Toohey, The Sun-Herald, February 14th 1999
Graham Richardson is hardly a sponsor's dream. At least not if the goal is to associate a company's product with the image of finely honed athletes who have reached the top because of an unswerving dedication to hard training, healthy living and the ideals of the Olympic movement.
Yet there was Richardson on national TV last week relishing the chance to come across as Mr Tough Guy, the deal-maker who says he'll never resign as Mayor of Sydney's Olympic Village - no matter what an elected government wants.
The image was scarcely conductive to attracting more corporate sponsorship.
Yet the deal which Richardson so proudly brokered means that taxpayers will be left footing the bill unless hundreds of millions of dollars of additional sponsorship is forthcoming.
The contrast could not have been stronger with another renowned hard man from Richardson's right wing faction in the NSW branch of the Labor Party, Laurie Brereton.
While Richardson was busy reminding potential sponsors how his unedifying brand of power politics has been transferred to the Olympic movement, Brereton was making an eloquent plea for the people of East Timor to be allowed to choose independence from Indonesia.
Abandoning the normal tribal loyalties expected within his faction, Brereton used his position as shadow foreign minister to deliver a carefully researched speech in which he condemned Labor's "heroes" such as Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating and Gareth Evans for accommodating Indonesia over East Timor. Those who find it difficult to accept that Brereton could take a stand on a matter of principle are deeply puzzled by his behaviour. Evans is merely furious.
As far as can be ascertained, however, there's nothing more sinister at stake than that Brereton happens to believe in what he is saying while acknowledging that it makes political sense.
There's not much mystery about what Richardson is up to. As usual, he's greatly enjoying the opportunity to further his reputation as someone who is a master at wielding power. In this case, he loves being seen as a central player in deciding who gets to participate in the continuing massive spending and (rapidly fading) prestige associated with the Sydney Olympics.
Few saw anything unusual in the early 1990s from federal politics, where he had been Media Minister, to a highly paid job with media baron Kerry Packer. Although Premier Bob Carr is privately critical of Richardson, he promptly appointed him to the board of the Sydney Organising Committee dor the Olympic Games (SOCOG) after Packer resigned.
Carr had every reason to be wary of Richardson. Richardson's close ally, Michael Knight, was not only Olympics Minister but extremely keen to replace Carr as Premier.
But Knight had a more immediate problem. He was understandably disconcerted to find that the previous NSW Coalition Premier, the now federal Finance Minister John Fahey, had agreed to give Australian Olympic Committee head John Coates a veto over spending on the Games as well as a percentage of the surplus. As Coates explained in last week's Four Corners program on ABC-TV, he was a friend of Richardson, but not of Knight. So Richardson got him together with Knight at a restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown and came to a new deal.
Coates gave up his veto power in return for Au$100 million from the Games revenue and at least another Au$75 million for the marketing rights to logos such as the Olympic rings.
It was a great deal for Coates. The money is guaranteed regardless of whether the Games makes a profit. Once it became clear that a new body called the Sports Commission had been established as part of the deal, it looked much less attractive for the NSW Government. Astonishingly enough, the commission handles all sporting matters involving the Games without the need for approval from the SOCOG board.
Coate's Australian Olympics Committee has two representatives on the Sports Commission. So does the International Olympic Committee. Apart from its executive director, Sandy Holloway, SOCOG only has two nominees on the commission, one of whom is Richardson. In case anyone had any lingering doubts about his influence, Richardson told Four Corners that Holloway moved to SOCOG at his suggestion.
The Sports Commission subsequently appointed Richardson as mayor of the Olympic Village. As both Richardson and Coates bluntly explained on Four Corners there's nothing SOCOG or the government can do to overturn the decision.
As a result, Richardson said he would not budge if a newly elected Coalition Government asked him to resign.
Given that NSW taxpayers are committed to spending Au$2.3 billion on Games facilities, a threat to turn off the tap could quickly focus the commission's attention on how badly it wanted to keep Richardson.
Richardson's arrogance was not the only problem for SOCOG arising from the Four Corners programme. Coates came across as equally arrogant. Often he felt it enough to answer "So what?" when it was put to him that some other figure on the Olympic scene did not agree with him.
The problem for SOCOG is that it needs more sponsors if it is to cover the operating costs of the Games. The repeated departure from the SOCOG board of any rivals to the Richardson/Coates/Knight triumvirate have not dome much to induce sponsor confidence. But this could not have been further eroded by the display on Four Corners.
The problems at the local level have been compounded by the constant revelations of sleaziness and greed involving several members of the International Olympic Committee.
Even one Australian delegate, Phil Coles, was temporarily stood down as a Sports Commission member last week after being embroiled in controversy over whether he and his family accepted undue hospitality from Salt Lake City when it was bidding for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
NSW tax payers are already stuck with funding the capital costs of the Games which have diverted money which could have been spent on schools, hospitals, rural renewal projects and so on.
They are most unlikely to welcome a demand to cover the shortfall on the operating budget while Coate's Olympic Committee collects almost Au$200 million. But Carr has only himself to blame if voters wake up to this before the election. After all, he appointed Richardson to a position where he could broker the deal which created this possibility.
About the only consolation for Carr is that Richardson's manoeuvrings have inadvertently guaranteed that Knight will never be Premier.
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