Tour Down Under

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Yes, another hard-hitting question. Can the minister update—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Let the member ask the question.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Thank you for your protection, Mr President.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, please!

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Thank you, Mr President. Can the minister update the chamber about the outcome of the 2019 Tour Down Under and the tribute to Paul Sherwen?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in cycling. Of course, as members can recall, I spoke about the success of the women's Tour Down Under on Tuesday. Now I would like to touch, if I may, on the wonderful men's Tour Down Under. I have already discussed how the overall event is going from strength to strength and cited some of the key statistics on visitation and media. I will repeat that figure: 300,000 people streamed it live on their mobile devices on the first day.

The men's event this year saw 133 riders from 28 countries covering some 900 kilometres across six stages plus, of course, the classic event around the Adelaide Parklands. We had some of the world's best riders in town: Peter Sagan, Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis and Caleb Ewan. Of course, also included on that list was past TDU winner Daryl Impey, who took out the overall race again this year.

As with the women's event, there were a number of firsts for the men's race too. The MAC Stage 6 finished at the top of Willunga Hill. About 133,000 spectators lined the route at Willunga Hill on the closing day. That was a fabulous endorsement of what was, I think, a change of location because of the construction work that is happening at the rear of Parliament House at the moment; it was endorsed wholeheartedly by the travelling public.

Port Adelaide also hosted a finish for the first time. North Adelaide returned as the start location for the first time almost since the inaugural Tour Down Under, and a new 13.9 kilometre circuit around Uraidla was introduced. It was also great to see the Challenge in full swing again, with more accommodating weather this year. There were some 3,792 entrants and only one ended up in hospital, which I think was a broken collarbone. I suspect nearly every Saturday, sadly, somebody comes to grief on their bike, so it was pleasing that there was only one. Every rider this time that was not injured or decided not to finish made it to the finish line before the pros. In other years, we have had stragglers having to be taken off the road to let the professionals reign.

Unfortunately, this year's event did have a bittersweet tone, with the unexpected passing of Paul Sherwen. Paul Sherwen was a much-loved member of the TDU family who will be greatly missed. He was a true professional who brought great insight to the fans. He was generous and always had a smile on his face. Paul had a deep passion and care for the work that he did and the people he worked with, including the riders and the fans. Paul has a place in the hearts of all those at the TDU and around the world in cycling, as evidenced by the outpouring of grief following his death.

Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen carry so much of our story, which is why a series of tributes went on throughout the event. In fact, they were great supporters of Tour Down Under from the very first event itself. At the Legends Night dinner, Phil Liggett gave a very touching and personal tribute to Paul Sherwen.

There were also some very uplifting stories from this year's event. At Willunga Hill, I met a young man, Dan Rembold. He had an American accent. He said he was from Texas. He had been in bed in hospital two years ago. My recollection is that he told me it was some type of nasty leukaemia, but a cancer of some magnitude. He was given some very radical treatment. His doctors told them that if it didn't work he may only live for the next three or four days.

That night, while going through the treatment, he was looking for something to watch—he loves cycling—and he found the Tour Down Under. He streamed it on his iPad and watched it while he was having treatment throughout the night. He then said to his wife the next day, 'If I live through this problem we are facing now, we're going to Australia to watch the Tour Down Under.' Luckily, he survived. He and his wife have five children. They left the children home with the grandparents and came here for 10 days. He could not believe what a wonderful event it was. He has reached out to me on LinkedIn since, and he is somebody I am going to invite back because it is a great story and an endorsement of a great event.

I would also like to thank some of the sponsors. In particular, I would like to mention FE Sports, FIVEaa, Novatech, Nova 919 and, of course, Ziptrack. I think it is also important to reiterate how wonderful it is to have Santos back on board for another three years. It is a real vote of confidence for the event and the state. I know the team at Santos are very keen to try to lift the women's event to a world UCI event.

We also must pay a little bit of tribute and thanks to Mike Turtur. He has announced that he will retire soon. Of course, Mike was the original race director. He was the one who came to the Liberal government more than 20 years ago and put the concept to them. It took a little while to prove it up. I was not aware of the logistics. To get an event of that magnitude up meant we had to send police and a whole range of people to the Tour de France to learn about how you put on and run an event like this. It wasn't just something whereby they made a decision and then next week they put it on. There was a lot of build-up to it. Even for Mike, as much as he is very passionate about the event, it was somewhat beyond his wildest dreams that we would have the biggest race in the world outside of Europe here in South Australia.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway, we have gone four minutes.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I know, but, Mr President—

The PRESIDENT: The hourglass, which I have had running—the last sand has just fallen through. I will allow you a couple of sentences to wind up.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The government is committed to the ongoing growth of the TDU. In closing, Mr President, I would like to thank again the volunteers, the Tourism Commission, the South Australian public and all the visitors, the police, the emergency services, all of the people that are really important. Volunteering is a part of the culture and the psyche of South Australia—all the people that volunteer to make this great event as good as it is.