Major Events Bid Fund

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:57): Will events drawn with the bid fund be declared major events?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:57): Well, we go over this a few times.

The SPEAKER: To the substance of the question.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Yes. It is up to the promoter of the event whether something is declared a major event. I have explained—

Mr Whetstone: It's called the Major Events Bid Fund.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Yes, but that's for us to go after the major events. Liverpool is a major event in terms of it being something that is going to bring in probably about 10,000 people to the state. It's up to Liverpool to get us, as the government, to declare it a major event. It is not our decision: it is for the promoter of the event. If Liverpool wants us to declare it a major event so that they get coverage in terms of people scalping tickets, and if they get coverage in terms of ambush marketing, it is up to the Liverpool Football Club to ask us to do that, and it is something, when we do go after a major event, we ask people if they want to do that.

If it is a non-ticketed event, you might not need it. The Tour Down Under, for example, which is something that we own as the government, every year we declare that as a major event, not because there is any ticket scalping going on but because we have Santos there as the major sponsor, we have Wolf Blass as the major wine sponsor, and we have all these other sponsors we want to look after, like BUPA. We don't want people standing on the side of the road with signs. In fact, some of the members opposite may have fallen foul in last year's Tour Down Under in the lead-up to the election with some of the activity they undertook out there, asking people to vote for them when the tour went—

Mr PENGILLY: Point of order, sir: I ask you to rule on whether the points made by the minister are anything to do with the—

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. The member for Adelaide.