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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-05 Daily Xml
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TOUR DOWN UNDER

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:15): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. How does hosting the UCI ProTour Tour Down Under benefit South Australia?

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:16): I thank the member for Mawson for his question. He has an abiding interest in cycling and is a world expert, having attended races around the world and commentated on the same. Of course, he would know that our 11th Tour Down Under, held from 18 to 25 January, was one of the most significant we have had in terms of representation, quality of teams, quality of riders, and crowd enthusiasm. It is clearly a record breaker.

There were 19 teams—133 cyclists, coming from 23 countries. It was particularly pleasing to see Allan Davis, an Australian riding for Quick Step, take out the winner's crown at the end of this six-day cycling event. For many of us who were there, it was also delightful to see Stuart O'Grady a mere 25 seconds behind, doing so well this year riding for Saxo Bank.

This year, the long-anticipated return to cycling of seven times Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, made the event even more exciting for many people. The buzz and excitement of the event, before it even occurred, was greater than we have ever known. In fact, there were front-page stories in major international newspapers such as the LA Times, taking away column inches from President Obama's inauguration in the process.

The event delivered enormous media interest; in fact, there were five times more online media articles before the event began this year than there had been in the entire event in the previous year. On top of that, there were 400 accredited media in Adelaide—up from about 200 the year before. While the final figures for media coverage are not yet in, we do know that there were approximately 743,000 people—almost three-quarters of a million—lining the streets for the seven days of action-packed racing. This was a huge increase from the previous year when there were 540,000 people present.

The Tour Down Under is more than just a cycling event: it is a major community festival, full of parties and fetes around the state, which encourages locals and tourists alike to get out into our regions to enjoy good food, wine and hospitality. Together with those visitors from interstate and overseas, this is a truly global event. Amazingly, this year, over 7,000 riders joined the Mutual Community Challenge Tour. I am told that 1,869 of those cyclists travelled from interstate and 118 riders came from overseas to take part in this event.

Boosted by the involvement of Lance Armstrong and his LIVESTRONG Foundation, the Cancer Council also joined in this event and became the official charity partner. The state government provided a cheque for $600,000 to the Cancer Council, fulfilling the Premier's pledge to triple any funds that they were able to raise during the TDU.

To attract the world's best riders and to achieve such stellar growth in media coverage, crowd numbers, participants and visitor numbers is due to the many organisations matching the faith and effort put into this event by the state government. I thank Events SA and also the UCI, the commissaires, team managers, riders, sponsors, media partners and those many local councils, as well as the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, the police and emergency services. Of course, I also thank the people of South Australia—the public—who made this event such a stellar one. It is their contribution that helped make this event such a great success.

There is really only one lonely group that did not get behind this event. One lonely group sought to denigrate, undermine and attack this event, and they are the members opposite. They are alone in attacking the Tour Down Under this year, much as they attack the events that occur in this state and many of our great successes. In fact, it may come as a surprise to members in this house to learn that the world was not preoccupied by temporary fencing in Victoria Square, as was the member for Unley. In fact, I can report to the house that neither The New York Times, the BBC, the LA Times or The Washington Post, Sky or Eurosport took up the challenge put to them by the member for Unley; and they did not report on the fencing around Victoria Square, which appears to be the only negative point that they could produce.

Most of the world was really focused on this event because of Lance Armstrong and the quality of the field, it having ProTour status. I have to say that there were plaudits from around the world, commendations and encouragement. So, it is a pity that those opposite could not join in the fun and say anything nice about this event.

In fact, it really is an outrage that, whilst the world was focusing on the ProTour points, those opposite were being so negative. I would say that all South Australians were proud of the development of the Tour Down Under, proud of the ProTour status, delighted that Lance Armstrong should make his comeback to competitive racing in Adelaide, South Australia, and they were delighted by this event. I would just encourage those opposite to recognise a world-class event, praise it and support those in our community who have made it possible.

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