
Issue No 102		13 July 2001

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The Locker Room

Aussie Battlers

Extracted from Strewth

Just how Australian is the Australian Davis Cup team? Steve Kinnane goes looking.

You might be surprised to find out that over 90 per cent of the players who played Davis Cup for Australia in the last few years live in other countries. They either don't think Australia's the best little country in the world, or they're a pack of tax dodging, public fund rorting, no good cheating bastards. Take your pick.

"Our" Pat Rafter lives in Bermuda. Australia's own Mark Woodforde spent much of his tennis career living in Monte Carlo, before setting up a ranch in California. The Poo, and his comrades Tood Woodbridge and Sandon Stolle live in the tennis and golf star ghetto that is Florida. Even Wayne Arthurs, that chronic first round loser, lives overseas. Only that little Ausssie battler Leyton Hewitt still calls Australia home, in Adelaide, presumably with his mum.

So what's up with these blokes? Greed got the better of them? Don't want to lend a hand to their future competitors at the Institute of Sport? Perhaps they're conducting a mass protest about tax payer dollars being used to prop up private schools and the private health care system. Whatever it is, tax dollars have got something to do with it.

n Pat Rafter's home town of Pembroke, Bermuda you don't pay income tax. None at all. So while Our Pat gives generously to children's charities, he doesn't give much to Queensland schools, roads and hospitals. He only pays the Australian Tax Office a cut on the money he earns through Australian tournaments and Australian sponsors.

Like Bermuda, Mark Woodforde's old home town of Monte Carlo is also a tax haven where personal income tax rates are zero. In the other Woody's home state of Florida, the tax regime also suits Australian tennis players. In the U.S. the top marginal tax rate is 39 cents in the dollar, compared to 48 cents in the Australian dollar. And in Florida there just happens to be no state taxes.

The player's managers and financial advisers will tell you that they have to leave Australia to play on the international circuit. But this doesn't explain why Leyton Hewitt can manage to live in Adelaide and Pat Rafter has to live in a tax haven in Bermuda. Or why golfers like Greg Norman, Craig Parry and Stuart Appleby live in Florida, while Wayne Grady and Mike Harwood live in Australia. Or why legends of tennis like Ross Case, Geoff Masters and Phil Dent could stay put and live and pay taxes in their own country.

For athletes playing team sports it makes sense when they move overseas. They have to live where their team is based. It's less important for golfers and tennis players as they end up living out of hotel rooms when they play the circuit.

The Australian Sports Commission gives out $14 million worth of scholarships a year and gives out $28 million in grants. Most of that money goes to elite athletes. But many elite athletes are not contributing to these government funded sports institutes because they're paying their taxes, if any at all, overseas.

Mark Phillipousis and Todd Woodbridge are two of the athletes who benefited from government funded scholarships at the Australian Institute of Sport, and now pay taxes to the U.S. government. They've both made millions from tennis, but aren't required to put money back into the Institute of Sport. There's no HECS style scheme for athletes who received sporting scholarships from the AIS.

So should we try and recoup the scholarship money of highly paid sports stars who move overseas? If we can't do that we should at least make them play Davis Cup for their adopted nations. Imagine seeing Pat Rafter lead Bermuda in a Davis Cup Tie against Australia. At least he'd be made to pay one way or the other.

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  Issue 102 contents

Interview: Jolly Green Giant
Senator Bob Brown on the upcoming federal poll, balances of power and what the Greens can teach the trade union movement.

Workplace: Call Centre Takeover
Theresa Davison brings us this real-life story from the coal face of the call centre industry.

E-Change: 1.2 Community � The Ultimate Network
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at the potential for network technologies to reconnect communities.

International: Child's Play
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has recently entered a new alliance with the Child Labour Schools Company to support a project for child labourers in India.

History: Flowers to the Rebels Faded
With the departure of our own Wobbly, a look at the development of the Wobblies in Australia and their view of Labor politicians and the work ethic seems timely.

East Timor: A Dirty Little War
In this extract from his new book, John Martinkus recounts the scenes in Dili immediately following the independence ballot.

Satire: Telstra Share Failure Ends City-Bush Divide: Everybody Screwed Equally
Communications Minister Richard Alston today claimed that the government had fulfilled its promise to ensure that the bush was not disproportionately disadvantaged by Telstra's privatisation.

Review: Cheesy Management
Currently climbing Australian best-seller lists is the 'life-changing' motivational book 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Rowan Cahill has a nibble but doesn't like the taste.

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» Brit Cleaners Serve It Up to Aussie Boss

» Rio Tinto Guilty of Hunter Valley Sackings

» Rail Workers Strike for their Families' Security

» Nurses Seek Urgent Action on Pay

» Workers Win Tip Top Delegate Rights

» Telstra Halts Latest Privatisation Plans

» Requiem for the Banks

» Surfers Remember Oil Slick Disaster

» Widespread Mail Disruptions on Cards

» Minister for Caged Hair Gets Hot Welcome in West

» Cleaner Wins Right to Attend Family Reunion

» Howard Cuts R&D Spending by 15 Per Cent

» Fears Grow Over Shangri-La Protests

» Mick Young Play Award

» Activist Notebook