‘Build it and they will come’, a quote often attributed to the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams. Imagine if a big production remake of the movie was made and instead of the Kevin Costner character being a Corn Farmer, he was a Public Works bureaucrat. Risking being the longest movie ever made, would a baseball field ever get built, would the ghosts of baseball players past ever get to play again? Imagine the scenes in the movie; upon reporting the mysterious voice to build the field to his superiors we would see the character told to take stress leave, after 6 weeks he persists that a voice is still telling him to build something, he is now required to take a mental health assessment, the report indicates he is fine to resume normal duties on a part-time basis. He then finds himself the only one in his department with a vision for new, any, infrastructure that the government has decided needs to be built in the regions to appease stirring voter discontent. A tender for a report to be prepared on the feasibility of building a baseball field where the voice says is called. The successful tenderer indicates in their wordy vague, non-committal report, yes, with a thousand proviso’s. But now there is squabbling in the government between politicians wanting the baseball field built in their electorate. A power play sees a deal being done where the baseball field is to be built in another electorate. This requires another report on most suitable location in that electorate. Once determined, community consultations are then held, an environmental impact study commences. Upon hearing rumours that the original idea was based on a bureaucrat hearing a voice to build one the media go all out questioning how the government makes decisions. The now stated, absolute essential, piece of infrastructure receives priority government ranking, a letter is posted to the federal government asking for matching funding, budgeted cost $20M. The letter is lost, both governments blame each other for losing it. Years pass, the blame game continues, the budget for the baseball field is now $40M and the environmental study indicates a rare earth worm could be under threat if a baseball field is built at the stated location. A federal election date is looming, the regions are becoming more restless, state government pressure gets a promise from the federal opposition, if elected they will give matching funding and get it built. The state government confident in the opposition winning the election make a hand on heart promise to build it no matter what. The movie ends with the sequel obvious Hollywood cliff hanger, the opposition losing the unlosable election, a sad earthworm poking its head out of the ground and the white print disclaimer saying this story is fictitious, any similarity to actual events is purely coincidental.
The ‘voice’ in the movie, Field of Dreams, actually whispered, “if you build it, he will come”. Now imagine an independent budget remake of the movie was made and the Kevin Costner role was played by first timer, Denis Wagner, Non-Executive Director of Wagner Corporation. Scene 1; voice heard, business case discussed with brothers, agreement reached, field built, cost less than $1M. The following 80 minutes of the movie, to reach standard running length, sees the ghosts of baseball past play a match.
Which movie would be less fictitious? What if it wasn’t a baseball field, but an international airport in Toowoomba.
An invitation was sent to Denis Wagner to come to Rockhampton and share his story of how building a private airport has led to many benefits for the Toowoomba region, including direct freight flights weekly into Asia. Well, ‘he will come’, August 29. Save the date, more details to be released. And start thinking what does CQ need built, so they will come?