Superloop Adelaide 500

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:38): Supplementary question: minister, can you confirm that the event is the biggest and most successful motorsport event in Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:39): I thank the member behind me for his very important question. It is the largest—

The PRESIDENT: It's a supplementary, so it needs to be answered in a brief fashion.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, okay. It is the largest motorsport event in Australia. It is one of the largest production motorsport events in the world. It has close to a quarter of a million visitors every four years. It has a 21-year history. It often wins national tourism awards. What it does is, it fills all of the hotels. It activates Adelaide. It is one of the few times that Adelaide is chock-a-block full.

We have great events—the Tour Down Under, the Fringe, the Festival, all of those things—but this actually fills every hotel for about a week. It is an exciting time of the year, and I thank the honourable member for his supplementary question and the opportunity to highlight to the chamber the importance of this great event. An initiative that was started under the former Liberal government over 20 years ago, it has now grown to be one of the nation's great sporting events, a great sporting festival. We are proud that we started it back more than 20 years ago, and we are proud to be associated with it today. Again, I really support and encourage you to get along to the Adelaide Superloop 500.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: You are pushing the friendship. You are pushing it, pushing me.

The Hon. D.G.E. Hood: Good question, good answer.

The PRESIDENT: You may be in the minority there, the Hon. Mr Hood. The Hon. Ms Scriven.