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If covid had not have occurred causing the park to close for months, there is no evidence to suggest the Koala centre project would not have gone ahead. With them bleeding money due to closure, and then no interstate tourists, in my opinion it was prudent and smart management for DW to ask the QLD government if the funds could be repurposed. The QLD Govt had the option to say yes, no, or "just give us the money back". You can have beef with the QLD Govt for saying yes, but the park has done nothing wrong here. There is no harm in asking a question. If DW had just spent the money on ST without asking, then thats an issue, but that didnt occur. I feel it was a completely responsible request and avenue to take to help the park rebound out of covid.

Take Dreamworld and roller-coasters out of it for a second; if the Government today announced that money previously earmarked for a stand-alone Koala research facility had been re-allocated to helping restart Queensland's badly affected tourism industry post-Covid would you still have the low-tide brigade on social media bitching about it because "Koalas are cute"? I'd wager you would.

Bad faith argument. Comparing Taipan - a landmark attraction designed to aid the park's financial recovery to a personalised licence plate is absurd. A better example would have been 'mate needed money for mum's surgery, but lost his job for 2 years and needed to use the money to pay his electricity instead to keep the lights on' Damn right he's still my mate. And I'd never have asked him for the money back (and neither would the government - that's not how grants work). You wanna hear worse optics than spending koala money on building a rollercoaster? Bankruptcy. The park is open. And people are going to return to the park because unless they were personally impacted by these negative events (ie: friends or relatives were killed, or are koalas) when it comes time to decide where to go over the school holidays, Dreamworld's giant orange rollercoaster gives a lot of families reason to visit regardless.

Looks like you got what you wanted to me.

I think you answered it best. They were given funding for something. A worldwide pandemic happened, and the thing the funding was for got halted - like MANY OTHER THINGS. Governments across Australia have thrown covid recovery money at encouraging tourism and hospitality visitation - holiday vouchers, dining vouchers etc. Dreamworld, like many other tourism operators were also impacted. It is NOT an unreasonable request for the park to ask QGOV if they could use the money for something to help with their covid recovery, and at the end of the day it was QGOV's decision to approve that.

Woah this blew up. I have a background in applying for and using government grants for admittedly a non-profit company but similar situation. Over the last few years both state and federal grants have been extremely relaxed about usage of funds. In the climate we are in, getting approval for extensions or even wholesale changes to the purpose of the funding hasn't been hard. Does it look bad from a #koalasmatter point of view. Yeah for sure, I don't deny that. The comment about autism is not needed nor indicative of what should be acceptable communication here and I sincerely doubt it will stay up much longer.

In other news, DW really should put a parental warning on this tree before the media accuse them of wilful exposure.

I think the only bad optics that matter to any of the GP when it comes to DW is that people died. I guarantee you less than 5% of the people going apeshit about koalas do not give care in the world, but it’s DW and they killed people… maybe that’s justified, maybe that is how it should be, but then to use that clearly residual “mud” from TRR to add credence and unjust negativity to subsequent issues 5 years later I think is stupid.

They're in the position that they're in now largely due to the help they received - including this grant. This is totally inaccurate. Government grant compliance is extraordinarily strict. Grant recipients have to provided audited accounts back to the government to show how everything was spent and how each dollar was justified. They couldn't just choose to spend it elsewhere. The only two options were: give it back ask permission to spend it on something else, and put forth a business case on why it would be worth approving (similar to the original grant application). Seriously, everyone's acting like Dreamworld just winked at the government and pointed at a bag of cash and Anastacia just gave a thumbs up in return - trust me - its a lot more involved than that. How can you attribute their current position absent the grant? for all we know their current success is simply because they were allowed to use the funds to build Taipan, and without that, their Summer 21\22 season was toast and they were bankrupt. There were plenty of discussions ON THESE FORUMS about how Ardent couldn't even afford to build Taipan. (Just in case you forgot - you can refresh your memory here: No-go roller coaster: how Dreamworld banked on a hand-to-mouth recovery strategy they could never afford | Parkz - Theme Parks) Quote - "HAND TO MOUTH STRATEG” And this is the crux of the matter. People are outraged because the media wanted them to be outraged and designed the clickbait headline and article slant to achieve that aim. This very website has published pieces calling out the mainstream media for their bias and all your statement here does is confirm it.

We have banned animal activists in the past for spreading misinformation about animal treatment at all of the theme parks and we will continue to do so.

Pretty open-and-shut, really. Provided the park asked for a variation of the conditions on the money (and were granted it) their hands are clean. After all - if a Koala research center was of such primary importance would a theme park be your first port of call on who to give money to for it? If the Government had said no to the repurposing of money and then DW did it anyway, then fair enough - controversy. If DW hadn't asked in the first place and repurposed the money, then fair enough - controversy. This here ain't much of anything.

Didn't you know @DaptoFunlandGuyPolar bears love the GC. It's their No. 1 holiday destination. /s

I have zero issue with them getting money others didn’t fwiw. I also don’t ‘hate’ DW either just to be clear

...and people are carrying on like this is a new thing. Tourism grant diverted to help COVID response in East Arnhem Land | FRRR Has the Tasmanian government diverted $1.6 billion in GST funding away from its health sector since 2014? - Australian Associated Press (aap.com.au) I wonder why Dreamworld's loan was precisely $3.1Million less than Village's loan?

People love a good bit of outrage, despite this amount of money being an ant's fart in the grand scheme of QLD's tourism spending. In their 2022-23 budget they've already allocated $186.1 million over four years JUST for Stadium Queensland day-to-day operations and ongoing maintenance expenses. They've also announced an additional $24 million of a separate fund would go directly into protecting koala populations and habitats.

@webslaveIt happens every week Governments moving money around as things change. Some people don't like DW here is why. I rest my case.

I mean but to tidy that up and make it reflect reality, it would be mate needed money for mum's surgery. Sat on it for a year, decided not to put it towards the surgery (She still kinda needs it btw but it's probably not life threatening) but asked instead if they could use it to buy a car so they can get to work because they currently use Ubers which means they're going backwards. If it were me, I'd say yes, but I'd also be kinda done with their shit and I'd feel a bit gross. This is also a total sideshow after the fact.

I mean that's also the truth of it, is the bad publicity for a couple of days worth $2.7million? Probably. If you were to do a cost benefit analysis I'm sure they come out on top.

People will move on as soon as the media gets bored with it.

Hmm. Surely the bad optics is being driven from the sensationalist media articles that are identifying this as a point to drive traffic to their websites? If the sensation was taken out of the headline and an article that just reported on the situation without any hyperbole would somewhat mute those bad optics surely.

Now has. Didn’t then. So no. if I have a mate doing it tough so shout him a night out, and then 2 years later he has a great job and surplus funds, I don’t expect him to pay me back.

I can guarantee you that those people visiting the parks in December will have long forgotten their outrage for the Koalas.

Probably a poor example because this happens frequently. Harvey Norman, a business that made record profits during COVID-19 but still got government handouts, only paid back $6 million of their $20 million they got from taxpayers. Dreamworld, by all comparisons, are saints here compared other institutions. Genuinely I don't believe that Dreamworld should need to pay back any money to taxpayers if it wasn't their initial obligation. Just because they're profitable now doesn't negate that they previously weren't and required support.

This is an interesting situation. Being based in NSW , I am neither biased towards either Village or Dreamworld. From a measure of outside looking in, my take on the situation is that Dreamworld had in place a grant that was approved to build a Koala research centre for a specified sum. This was a government grant and from the looks of it , was approved and planned pre-pandemic. Then along came COVID, the priorities of the park shifted (along with revenue and patronage during this time). DW obviously decided that they needed to alter their plans and saw they had a pool of money for a planned koala research centre. Given that they found that they required help to build a bright, shiny , expensive new coaster , they asked the government if these funds could be diverted towards the new coaster , which will help the park survive in these times and lead the park through the pandemic and give people a reason to return to the park post pandemic. Given that DW is a massive part of the GC tourist landsacpe, the government not unreasonably , saw this request for what it was , a diversion of already approved funds , to help a struggling entertainment entity deliver a new atraction that would aid in their post pandemic recovery , thereby aiding in keeping what is arguably one of the states most important tourist attractions and areas solvent and viable. The government approved this and it was all above board. From my perspective, it certainly passes the "pub test" . I think we can all agree that the presentation of the Steel taipan coaster and the success and influence it has had on DW has been very positive. My overall feeling on this situation is that things change and priorities shift. To me this , what DW have done here is not something that I feel is in any way morally corrupt or illegal. I think it shows good business sense and use of available funds to aid in an unprecedented situation in order to help the business survive.

Only need to check their website to confirm - THE WIZARD OF OZ and all related characters and elements © & ™ Turner Entertainment Co. (s22)

the past couple times i’ve been to the night markets and the park during the day they’ve actually been pretty busy compared to previous years if it was village you’d be saying how great they are and to stop attacking them as they used the money elsewhere from a cancelled project, we all know you would. Tigers don’t live in coomera, however they live in very similar weather conditions (20-30°c) that are found on the Gold Coast. So having polar bears in this weather compared to tigers is a lot more dangerous and not even comparable.

Yeah and they don't turn around and build a roller coaster with them! Honest the Dreamworld sap bias is so ridiculous in this matter. How on EARTH does Dreamworld spending wildlife money on a bloody roller coaster (*cough* apparently it's just delayed and they'll do it later. BS! And if you can build a coaster in covid, you can build a small building for Koala research) somehow turn into Sea World are evil and their management is horrible and they hate everyone? What? Because the CEO drives a nice car? Give me a friken break! And yes the government is just as culpable in this as Dreamworld. It's disgraceful the government said yes to this, and it's equally so that Dreamworld even asked. Yes it is straight forward, straight forward that they care more about getting a shiny coaster open to drive gate (how's that empty carpark working out for them by the way?) than their animal commitments. No I wouldn't agree at all if it was Village, I would be equally as horrified. And don't keep bringing up Polar Bears, that's just being ridiculous for being ridiculous. Guess what, Tigers don't live at Coomera in the wild either!

Not saying that you're wrong but I haven't heard any of these allegations. Do you have any sources to back them up? The situation seems pretty standard to me. COVID delayed the project and Dreamworld asked to use it for Steel Taipan which they approved. “The Queensland government approved that the funding previously approved for the research facility be repurposed to support the construction of the new ride, taking into consideration the immediate impacts of the pandemic and the appeal of new tourism offers likely to attract returning domestic visitors and international tourists when borders reopened,” Hinchliffe said. Link to article Also the project isn't cancelled it's just on hold. This could change in the future, but I think their reasoning for wanting to divert funds was pretty sound and the government seems to agree. The coaster didn't come at the expense of their animals or their well-being, and it's not like they built the thrill ride right next to a rehabilitation area.

Come on, I give you a lot more credit for being this silly and obtuse. We all know (you included) the insane amount of money Village spend on animal care and rescue. This is issue is black and white. They said they’d build a Koala centre, they didn’t and they spent the money on a ride they couldn’t afford. Doesn’t matter how much of a nice and relatable guy enthusiasts think the park manager is, or how much they pander to those enthusiasts, it doesn’t change any of the above. This whole thing stinks.

We talking about Trevor Long at Sea World?

Hardly clickbait. It shows appalling miss use of public money by both Government and Dreamworld. After gifting them and loaning them ride money the gov should never have let them take money intended for wildlife research and use it for a ride. And the fact that the park 1, asked and 2, didn’t build the promised the facility is just another indication of how morally bankrupt current park management are towards the animals. It’s no wonder their dedicated and talented key animal people have all left. Management have no interest in ‘difficult’ expensive animals which are just a product to them they want more simple and profitable. The whole thing stinks and is pretty damn poor form by all involved.

You're being bloody optimistic.

Govt have DW $2.7m to go towards the koala research centre they were planning. Covid happened and the plan got scuttled. DW asked Qld Govt if they could instead use the funds for ST. Govt said no problem. Media found out today. Cue “think of the koalas”

And I think that, in of itself, is part of the problem. Whether that reputation is "Dreamworld not safe" or "Dreamworld has no water rides" they kind of just need to bite the proverbial bullet and do a new water based ride and be damned to all the ~bad press~ that'll come from people saying "too soon". I've lived in Melbourne for 12 years now but for the 22 years I did live on the Gold Coast I visited Dreamworld dozens of times a year (when I was old enough, obviously), and I can't imagine the place as being enjoyable to people like me (who don't do water parks) on the kind of hot Summer days that make up such a big part of life on the Gold Coast. I can't speak for everyone (because there are people who do like visiting the adjacent water parks) but a theme park not having a water ride is pretty much a deal breaker for me - especially in the Queensland climate.

There's a lot of overlap there which is a bit yikes.

Should Qantas fix their customer experience and perception problems if their business is generating revenue?