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Well something is definitely happening today

Given the $3M was already 'awarded' to them in 2019, it stands to reason the gov wouldn't give them the same $70M they gave village when $3M was already unspent and on the table - it's not like Ardent received 'favourable treatment' by getting to keep $3M of it - they got a smaller loan because there was already cash on the table. If the grant hadn't been sitting there already, you can absolutely bet your arse both companies would have gotten exactly the same money. It's pedantry, but since we seem so hell bent on splitting hairs, It would be correct to say that Village received more covid relief funding than Ardent did. The fact that it was because they already had unspent grant money is beside the point. They could have spent that prior to covid and still put their hands out for $70M and nobody would be crying that they got more money then. Thread title needs changing too, now we've determined it wasn't a koala research grant, but an international tourism grant.

That's how you get ride construction funding these days.

Feed them to the dolphins @DaptoFunlandGuy Dolphins eat 200kg of food a day. That's a lot of Koalas.

Competent PR seems to be lacking in general.

A good place to start with grants and funding would be here: https://www.parkz.com.au/article/2020/08/11/692-Structural_changes_funding_injection_sees_Gold_Coast_theme_park_future_secured.html In short (and to augment the above with newer financials), during COVID: Village loans totalled $70M from existing lenders (i.e. banks) + Queensland Treasury Corporation (Qld Govt's investment vehicle). The exact breakdown between private loans and QTC is unclear, but they received $34M in government loans and grants in the second half of 2020, of which $1.7M was a grant under 'Supporting Australia's Exhibiting Zoos and Aquariums'. We lose public visibility of Village's financials after the BGH deal, but JobKeeper subsidies to June 2020 totalled $42 million. And under the guidelines of the 'Major Tourism Experiencing Hardship' Qld grant they would have been entitled to $3-4 million in the second half of 2021. Ardent received $66.7M loans from QTC + a no-strings $3M grant. It's unclear if this $3M is just the repurposing of the $2.7M koala grant (which itself is tied into a $1.8M grant for genome research announced as far back as 2016), but Ardent received government grants and subsidies totalling $8M in the second half of 2020, inclusive of JobKeeper. There was a $2M 'Major Tourism Experiencing Hardship' grant in the second half of 2021. I don't see anything to suggest Village were 'given' $30 million for Sea World before or during COVID, @StingRay. Feel free to dust off that Google machine and provide more info if you've got it. The fact that a STEM tourism (read: local school groups) project was to be funded by an Asia tourism development grant and pitched foremost as a research project to me is an indictment on government grants and the lobbying industry. But that's certainly not isolated to this situation. All in all it's totally irrelevant to try and compare the two operators. They are two vastly different businesses that faced vastly different problems during COVID and this is reflected in the fact that they took different approaches in the peak of the pandemic, and required different assistance packages. Dreamworld has been unprofitable for six years and even in their heyday was a business a third the size of VRTP. Village also has other Australia and Queensland based businesses. Of course they're going to get different things from government. Are the optics of this reallocation of funding great? Not really. But that's the worst you can say about it. Could a competent PR team have seen this coming a mile away and easily preempted it? I think so, but competent public messaging doesn't belong in the same sentence as government or Ardent.

Far out I'm going to explain this very clearly. This issue is that DW got a grant of about $3million for a thing. They then said 'we aren't doing that thing anymore. Can we use the money for building this thing instead?'. Government said 'Yes'. That is what it is, it's not about the merits of public funding for private works. It's not about the validity of this project v that project, it's about the apparent taking of funds for something altruistic, and changing it so you can build a ride. Also according to the articles at the time, Village got access to a $70million loan, Ardent got access to $66.9 loan, and a $3million grant. So 'it's the same!!1!' isn't true, and even if it was, you wouldn't have the issue of changing what the money was for. You can argue how big a deal it is, personally I don't think it's a massive deal, but it's probably not something you can just dismiss as clickbait.

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.

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.

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.

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

You're being bloody optimistic.

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.

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.