If we are serious about combating Chinese influence in the Pacific, NZ Government should consider taxpayer funding the All Blacks

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
18
6

You want how much fucking money?

Taxpayers asked to pay to keep All Blacks in NZ
New Zealand Rugby boss Steve Tew has again raised the issue of government funding to keep top All Blacks from going overseas

Player payments were causing “pressure” on rugby finances, Tew said.

Both NZR boss Tew and All Blacks coach Steve Hansen spoke to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Minister of Sport and Recreation Grant Robertson, at the weekend’s Bledisloe Cup test in Auckland, and highlighted the increasing challenge of retaining players in the face of cash-rich clubs from the Northern Hemisphere.

The overseas deals are becoming more and more lucrative, with All Blacks first-five Beauden Barrett, who starred in Saturday’s win over the Wallabies, reportedly offered $3.4 million a year to join a French club after next year’s World Cup.

Tew told reporters today that NZR spent more money each year than it made, with 36 percent of their expenditure going on player wages.

The financial assistance from the government may be needed if New Zealand wanted to keep its top talent at home and in the black jersey, he said.

“We [NZR] continue to spend on average between $5 [million] and $7 million a year more than we earn. Thirty-six percent of our costs that are fixed go to our professional players,” Tew said.

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Everyone from big Paddy Gower to the avocado millennials over at the Spinoff have shit on the idea of giving taxpayer funds to the All Blacks.

I think we should seriously consider it with strings attached.

Right now, NZ faces a huge problem in the Pacific with China expanding its influence with huge infrastructure and aid projects aimed at swamping the already corrupt Pacific Island Governments.

It’s a problem we have acknowledged and Winston is attempting to counter it with a huge ‘Pacific reset’ budget of $1billion.

The problem is that is a pittance compared with what China can spend.

So. How can you compete with China for influence in the Pacific when they have a much larger wallet?

What about Rugby Diplomacy?

What if the new Government agreed to taxpayer funding the All Blacks and the strings attached are regular All Black tours in the Pacific?

Rugby Diplomacy could create a huge cultural power in the Pacific that Chinese money could never buy, rather than ruling out taxpayer subsidy of the All Blacks, the new Government should consider Rugby Diplomacy as a unique NZ way to keep our influence in our backyard.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. I’m no promotions expert but I know enough to know if the number eye balls aren’t there then you’re it’s difficult to justify increasing player compensation. Maybe the government could put together some sort of bail out deal but if NZARU aren’t moving towards adding new teams into the super rugby and championship rugby and new eyeballs then the money will run out fast.

  2. Martyn, please tell me this is a joke. Rugby is just a professional sport – and not a very good one. The only reason that New Zealand is top of the pops at Rugby is because no one else could give two cents about it. Even in this country quite a lot of Kiwis couldn’t give a damn about it – you might have noticed.
    You admit that the amount of money that could be put into the kitty is miniscule, so why bother.
    Because the Pacific Islanders will get a warm and fuzzy glow? I would point out that New Zealand is supposed to meet a UN commitment to offer some of our GDP to help out poorer countries. The agreed figure was 1% but that was far to much for NZ. The next agreement was 0.7% of GDP. Also too much for NZ
    The figure that our previous Government was willing to contribute was 0.25% if I remember right. Please dont insult the Pacific Islands with your silly proposal. What they really want is simply for NZ to keep its promises.

    • Eh? The Foreign ministers job is to be a club everyone wants to be in while leering at each other and talking sideways to the guy every one doesn’t like, while getting as many in the room on our side as possible. I mean why wouldn’t you take advantage of a sport with 1 billion viewers at peak time. We can’t compete with the big players doing the nuts and bolts industries so we just can’t listen to people saying ignore the big numbers that New Zealand can control. That’s just crazy. I’d prefer to load up 20 tons of aid three times a week and use our own planes, ships and soldiers as distribution. You can’t really lean on local resources to do stuff we are not willing to found in a disaster, just dosnt work that way.

      Besides that The WHO, and UNICEF are like the only parts of international aid I really care to fund on a normal day, because of all the overseas corruption.

      I find my reasoning split between the above reasons. It’s a good exercise of soft power for countries and people there to see “Made in the Pacific” on their TVs or even packaging in there country. Or signs saying “Bridge built with funds by the (insert friendly country here) and stuff like that.

      Concerning foreign aide, I’d have no problem doing a few billion more. And spending more here in New Zealand to help fix things with the right pricing mechanisms which we don’t currently have because we’ve been far to scared of a carbon price.

      The thing is, when well managed foreign aid is actually really effective at least for tangible things like medical distribution It’s on the back of an economic recovery. A lot of people think we can’t do a carbon price because we have to do things different to get, say, money where we want it in medicine and infrastructure and opportunists steal them or something.

  3. +100 Interesting Post …re – “What about Rugby Diplomacy?”

    …worth considering…the Pacific Islands are crazy about rugby…and how about rugby scholarships etc

    “Rugby Diplomacy could create a huge cultural power in the Pacific that Chinese money could never buy, rather than ruling out taxpayer subsidy of the All Blacks, the new Government should consider Rugby Diplomacy as a unique NZ way to keep our influence in our backyard.”

    ( totally agree)

  4. Just what Rugby Union needs. To be made in to a State controlled entity. I think it is also against one of the principles of the Olympic movement where Olympic committees are meant to be independent of the Government.

    • Erm,.. fella, – rugby insofar as state teams like the All Blacks were made professional decades ago,… and while we all know the neo liberal mantra of ‘too big to fail’ is a complete hypocritical mirage,…

      I would have at least thought that neo liberal cheerleaders such as yourself would have gotten on board with the rest of the hypocrites and begged govt for a hand out.

      You know ,… like all the rest of the American ‘ too big to fail’ outfits ( ie : banks ) that whined and cried until they were bailed out.

      Surely you wouldn’t abandon the All Blacks in their hour of need ? ? ? Or is that too much for your obvious American heritage to endure to condescend to New Zealanders?, – those obviously naive and slightly uncouth antipodeans who just need a little helping hand in finding the right way ? The American way.

      Surely not.

      Or is it the thought of a ‘state controlled entity’ that really galls you?

      Come on.

      Lets at least see a few comparison to the evils of Venezuela or something.

      Come on please.

      We need a good laugh.

      Eh , Wanker.

  5. What a lot of pseudo nationalistic crap. If we were more concerned about the real issues facing our nation than propping up professional rugby, we’d be far better off. This feel good All Black juggernaut is nothing but a distraction & is the result of bread & circuses thinking. When it comes to sport our patriotic, black singlet passion is blatantly obvious, but if we channeled our nationalistic fervour into safe guarding the future of our nation, we could work wonders.

  6. na no money for rugby, no money for the islands, in fact go hard china spend up large. Our region can use some serious upgrades to infrastructure, telecommunications, storm protection and harbor facility’s, we need to spend our own cash here and look to our own futures, we got to sort our health and welfare services out.

  7. just make sure the anti-chinese rugby squads pack their tsunami umbrellas though. it’s hard to cover all those threats. on a budget

  8. Well , the Irish export their Guinness , and the Scots their Whiskey,… and we have the All Blacks.

    Gonna be a hard call for certain All Blacks to resist such handsome deals.

  9. No we should build cultural connection by investing in the game/sport/arts/education/health in the islands. Otherwise focus our aid at the grassroots – clean water and power/broadband (online education) and medical services to the village.

    Leave the big (air and sea port) projects to the Chinese loans – the Chinese will expect to one day take them over (instead ask the EU to pay off the loans at this point). The Chinese should really be funding this as aid development as part of building their global network.

    As for NZRFU funding – to develop the womens participation in the game sure. For AB pay, no. Let top players have a one year sabbatical between World Cups (not the year prior to a World Cup) to get a big payday before they retire from AB eligibility.

  10. In the Pacific includes No Zealand, being a series of Pacific Islands itself. What needs to be done is guerilla warfare training to resist the Chinese dictatorship, but perhaps start with the creation of an Aotearoa International Peace Prize and award it to a Uighur dissident before they are all “re-educated” in death camps?

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