There's a thread on adventurepro about the newspaper article. There's no evidence that Penrith Whitewater will be closed down. It seems it's just media hype.
As for a prominent paddler slagging the setup on there, I haven't seen that? There's a thread that has has a lot of talk between rec paddlers/playboaters and the man who is making the changes to the course, and he is trying to accommodate it for playboaters/rec paddlers on the weekends. I've only seen positive feedback on that topic.
I have no idea about this climbing gear rumour, but it sounds a lot more like a rumour than anything that would ever be true. Budgets allocated for the stadium would need to be spent there. So I don't see how anybody could spend it on personal climbing equipment. If it were true and you've heard about it, the guy would have lost his job already.
I don't know where you are getting your information, but you should try and get some facts or evidence on these types of things. Sounds like a bunch of bad rumours more than anything.