JH appeared to show a displeasure at the confusion caused by naming rights sponsorship of sporting venues and tournaments in a radio interview with Liam Bartlett of ABC Radio in Perth on Friday October 10. In a discussion of the Rugby World Cup (of which I have used other excerpts elsewhere in this forum), JH got himself into the following tangle:

PRIME MINISTER:...As somebody who loves sport, I count myself very fortunate as having been Prime Minister at the time, not only at the Sydney Olympics but also the Rugby World Cup and that, of course, will be opened at the Olympic Stadium or Telstra Stadium or Stadium Australia, as some people call it. I think it’s officially called Telstra Stadium, but when you say the Olympic Stadium, everybody around Australia knows what you mean.

BARTLETT:Yeah, well, here at the ABC we tend to like those generic names.

PRIME MINISTER:Yeah, well, I do too actually, like Sheffield Shield - I shouldn’t have said that.

BARTLETT:[inaudible] let's not go back there.

PRIME MINISTER:No.

(source: http://www.pm.gov.au/news/interviews/Interview518.html)

Now I share the same sentiments over the renaming of sporting arenas every time a sponsor throws in a few million dollars, mindful of the fact that it is sponsorship money much needed most, if not all, of the time. But is JH being so mindful of the importance of naming right sponsorship when he, the parliamentary leader of the party of capitalism and free enterprise, makes these sort of off-the-cuff remarks?

Especially when it concerns a company of which the Commonwealth of Australia owns 50.1 per cent (however much JH and the boys want to get rid of it)?

And as for his defence of the name "Sheffield Shield", he no doubt would be thrilled if he knows that he is perpetuating the name of the 19th century British lord of the realm who provided that trophy... but I hope to say more in retrospect about the 1999 Sheffield Shield/Pura Milk Cup controversy at another time.