Olympic Museum
Page: 6185
The Hon. J. M. SAMIOS: My question is to the Treasurer, and Vice-President of the Executive Council, representing the Premier. Why has the Premier refused to back plans for an Olympic Museum to be established at Homebush Bay? Is the Premier aware that other host cities, including Munich, Barcelona and Lausanne, have all established successful Olympic museums to commemorate the event? Given the Premier's well-known love of museums, why has he ruled out support for this particular proposal?
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: It is the first time that I have heard of the proposal. Therefore, it is also the first I have heard of the assertion by the Hon. J. M. Samios that the Premier has rejected such a proposal.
The Hon. J. M. Samios: It is in today's paper.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: The honourable member knows that I do not read the paper every day. If it is important enough it will catch up with me. I do not get out of bed and rush to see what is in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Hon. J. M. Samios: It is written by Matthew Moore.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: Many years ago Matthew Moore was the journalist who—notwithstanding his excellent article yesterday about George Souris—wrote about that car crash story when he predicted the demise of the then Leader of the Opposition. It goes to show that journalists often get it wrong. When they get it wrong, they never subsequently admit that they got it wrong.
The Hon. M. J. Gallacher: He has got it wrong about George Souris as well.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: No, not about George Souris.
The Hon. M. J. Gallacher: You can't have it both ways.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: The same person can be spot on and way off on different issues. It happens all the time. I have even known the Leader of the Opposition on one or two occasions to be right, even though he is almost uniformly wrong.
The Hon. M. J. Gallacher: Name them.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: I do not want to embarrass you. It is the first time I have heard of a proposal for an Olympic Museum. I do not know what the Premier has said about it. I am already starting to think about that proposal. I would have thought that all of the Olympic venues will become an Olympic museum. When I went to Munich in 1973 one of the first things I did was visit the Olympic site. I got a great kick out of seeing the names of the Olympic gold medallists on a wall. Shane Gould won five medals at the Munich games recording times that a 12-year-old today would be able to emulate, if not beat. There have been advancements since then.
The Hon. M. J. Gallacher: You could not even walk the length of the pool.
The Hon. M. R. EGAN: I could walk the length of the pool. I used to be able to swim the length of the pool. I was once the Combined Christian Brothers butterfly champion over 50 metres. The only way I could get into the school swimming team was to enter the butterfly event because no-one else was silly enough to swim that stroke. It is an impossible stroke, but I trained and trained and trained. I trained in a 50-metre pool. I arrived at one carnival and found that we were swimming in a 33-yard pool, which meant that the race was 66 yards. I did well up to about 55 yards and then I literally sank in the last 11 yards. I will have a look at the proposal.