"The MCG is our nation's greatest sports venue, one of our proudest icons, and has been recognised as one of the best sporting stadiums in the world...
“More than 150,000 footy fans are expected to flock to the ground this weekend to watch their clubs battle it out in the Preliminary Finals and there is no better place to watch footy than at the people's ground.
“It's now been 20 years since the Great Southern Stand was built, and it is now the right time to make the necessary improvements to ensure the MCG continues to deliver the world-class sporting experience that it is famous for."
Victorian Premier John Brumby (Labor Party), September 15 2010
"The MCG is Australia's greatest sports venue and a Victorian icon, and it has been recognised as one of the best sporting stadiums in the world...The Age, which is where I found this, seems to be treating it a bit as those awful Liberals ripping off the media releases of the honest, hardworking Labor party, but to my mind it suggests something slightly different. In government the Liberals have been much as Labor was, and projects, such as the Myki smart card system for Melbourne's public transport system and the Wonthaggi desalination plant, that some people had hoped would be shut down by the new government have been looked at and allowed to continue. And now we see that not only are the government doing many of the same things as the last one even the bloody press releases are similar. And I wonder, could this be because the elected politicians are not actually running things? Could it be that the public servants actually set much of the agenda and the pollies are there to influence them a little but otherwise just take the credit or blame as necessary? Could it be that Yes Minister was not only not fictional but typical of most governments, national or state?
"More than 150,000 footy fans are expected to flock to the ground this weekend to watch their clubs battle it out in the preliminary finals and there is no better place to watch footy than at the G.
"It's now been twenty years since the Great Southern Stand was built, and the time is right to get to work so the MCG continues to deliver more world-class sporting experiences."
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu (Liberal Party), September 22nd 2011
After all, what's the common denominator here - the civil servants don't change.