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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-06 Daily Xml
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TOUR DOWN UNDER

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:38): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister inform the house of the success of the 2013 Santos Tour Down Under?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:39): I would like to thank the member for Florey for her question and acknowledge her great love of cycling and other sports and the hard work that she does for her electorate.

I saw the member for Florey at the Modbury to Tanunda stage. She was there when, for the very first time in the tour's 15-year history, we had a start on grass. It was a beautiful park in Modbury across from Tea Tree Plaza, and the member for Florey and the Minister for Manufacturing were both out there. In fact, I was called on for my journalistic and photographic skills to take a photo of them on the start line with all the riders behind them.

It was great to see so much support. We saw many people from the other side, too, at all the various stages. I want to congratulate everyone for getting out and supporting the race that really takes it to all South Australians. You do not have to go to an arena to see it; it comes past many people's front door.

I also want to thank all the councils for getting behind it. Obviously, the state government makes a big investment to bring this race to South Australia. It is the first UCI event of the year and it is on the world tour calendar. This year, 757,000 people turned out to watch the Tour Down Under, and I want to thank all of those people and the thousands of people who came from interstate and overseas.

The Bupa Challenge from Modbury up to Tanunda attracted more than 6,500 people, including 2,000 riders from interstate and overseas, and there were many more who did not take part in the ride who I met along the way at Mount Barker and throughout the hills. So to all the visitors to South Australia, we hope you enjoyed it and we hope to see you again.

Last year's Tour Down Under had a $42 million economic benefit to South Australia, and we think that, with crowd numbers around the same as last year, South Australia is likely to enjoy that sort of figure as well.

The other thing that was different this year was that we had an extra 10 hours of live coverage through the Channel 9 and GEM network. There is nothing like showing off South Australia than to see the world's best cyclists go through some of the most beautiful regions in the world, and we are very proud to have those regions here in South Australia.

We also saw the Channel 9 Today show doing live crosses throughout the week, including to Modbury. They were out there before the sun came up as people like the Premier, our Governor and the federal opposition leader were out there competing in the Bupa Challenge to raise money for a cause (for cancer in most cases) and to keep fit. It is always a good goal for those people who ride bikes to enjoy the Christmas turkey but then try to get out there and ride a bit of it off, with the goal of competing in the Bupa Challenge.

Thank you again to all the people who have worked on the Tour Down Under, the councils that support us and put on the local events around the tour, and the people who came along to see it.

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