Dylan Caporn: Big events are great, but taxpayers deserve to know the cost

Coldplay’s Western Australian ballad was a clear tug at our State’s parochial heartstrings. “Now we love your whole country. The whole country is blessed,” Martin belted out at the packed Optus Stadium. “But you got to start somewhere beautiful. So we started, in the West.” Martin’s tailor-made song paved the way for an announcement of four Coldplay shows in Sydney and Melbourne for next year — just 12 hours after finishing their second exclusive Perth show. There is no doubt there was a huge tourism boom off the back of the concerts. The UK mega rockers were targeted for their ability to pull a crowd. Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti revealed 30 per cent of tickets sold for the two shows were purchased by interstate and international tourists. Saffioti described the economic benefit as incredible — and even revealed on Monday the State had tried and failed to entice Taylor Swift to Perth. But the cost of the deal, understood to be eight figures, has been a tightly held secret. Documents relating to the deal with Coldplay, obtained through a freedom of information request by The West Australian, reveal the behind-the-scenes haggling with promoter Live Nation. But the documents are heavily redacted, with tourism officials hiding behind “commercial in confidence” provisions to protect the cost of the deal. There are subtle hints in the documents, with a Live Nation representative asking whether a midweek concert was possible, in order to fit in with band’s Asian tour schedule. And a sole reference to the scale of the cost came after Tourism WA sought confirmation of the band’s commitment to the concert at start of this year. “We are quarantining a significant amount of money from our budget for this event, and now it’s 2023, we will need to know very soon if it is going ahead otherwise we face budget implications,” a Tourism WA staff member wrote in an email. The band will be paid its fee from the State Government’s major event funding pool, which totals $75 million in the 2023-24 financial year. There is a clear public interest in the disclosure of the cost to the taxpayers for these deals — something Labor also once believed. In opposition in 2016, Mark McGowan railed against the Barnett government’s use of commercial in confidence provisions to protect the cost to bring the Socceroos to Perth. “The culture of this government and its addiction to secrecy is extraordinary,” McGowan told Parliament. “That has to change. If we are elected, we will reveal the cost of these deals, because taxpayers have a right to know. “Transparency and accountability mean something. Taxpayers will find out if Labor is elected.” And yet, years later, no change. Martin’s lyrics from 2002’s The Scientist, played over the weekend, feel apt: “Running in circles, chasing our tails. Coming back as we are.”