There was so much debate about a public holiday this week, I could have sworn we were approaching 26 January. In what felt like a one-off nationwide revival of Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals, politicians at all levels of government weighed in on the pros and cons of a public holiday if the Matildas were to win the Women’s World Cup. During a climate crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and a housing crisis, how wonderful it is to know that, while our leaders may struggle to find solutions to actual existent problems, they still have time to game out a response to hypothetical sporting ones.
Of course all this discussion was ultimately moot, but kudos to all involved for thinking ahead. Perhaps if we want to get anything done in this country, all future decision-making should be tied to national sporting success. If the Wallabies win the Rugby World Cup, we’ll scrap the stage-three tax cuts. If the Boomers win the Fiba World Cup, we can have high-speed rail. (For the non-sporting types, the Boomers are a basketball team, not a highly competitive squad of property investors over the age of 60.)
