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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-21 Daily Xml
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Tour Down Under

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:14): Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister inform the house about the economic benefits of the 2014 Tour Down Under?

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) (15:14): I thank the member for Kaurna for his question. Of course, his electorate is showcased across the world—the wonderful beaches of Silver Sands, Port Willunga and Aldinga—as the second-to-last stage of the Tour Down Under each year goes through the seat of Kaurna.

Fantastic news just in in terms of the economic impact of this year's Santos Tour Down Under: $45.9 million was pumped into the South Australian economy. We saw a total of 762,266 spectators attend the event, and 36,000 interstate and overseas visitors came to South Australia specifically for the 2014 Santos Tour Down Under. The event generated 26,092 media items, resulting in a calculated public relations value of $167 million.

There were 26 hours of the 2014 event, including 17½ hours live and 8½ hours of highlights telecast on the Nine Network and GEM. The race itself was spectacular, with just one second separating the eventual winner, Simon Gerrans, and the Australian champion, Cadel Evans. Simon Gerrans became the first person to ever win the Santos Tour Down Under three times.

One of the highlights of this year's race was actually at the Legends dinner, when Phil Liggett, the voice of world cycling, declared that the best way for South Australia to retain the Santos Tour Down Under was to re-elect the current government in March. He told me that he had just got down off the stage when he was confronted by Joan Hall, who came up with David Ridgway, who was the opposition tourism spokesperson. She said, 'Phil, next year David is going to be the minister for tourism, so you are going to have to deal with him.' Phil was a little bit taken aback by that.

Christian Prudhomme, the head of the Tour de France, was out here. He had a great time, and loved the event. He described the Santos Tour Down Under as the 'Tour de France in January'. Brian Cookson was also here, the new head of the UCI, the international cycling body. It was his first trip to see the Santos Tour Down Under. He was blown away by it; he loved the event. The Premier and I spent a lot of time with him to make sure that the future of the Santos Tour Down Under is as safe is it possibly can be. This is the sort of thing you need to do. You need to have good relationships with the people who run world sport.

A couple of weeks after they went back, I rang Brian and Christian, and I asked them whether the opposition had caught up with them while they were here to work on keeping the Santos Tour Down Under in South Australia. They both said that they had not been approached for any briefings or discussions by the opposition. Particularly, Christian Prudhomme, the man who runs the Tour de France, said that was very interesting, because in France when there is an election on, the opposition parties will always come and sit down and have a meeting with him about the future of the Tour de France.

They thought that it was a little unusual that while they were here there were no discussions. It is particularly unusual given that Joan Hall raced up to Phil Liggett and said that David Ridgway was going to be the new tourism minister for the 2015 race. They obviously thought that they were going to win in March, even though Phil Liggett, the voice of cycling, had advised people in the room that night—

Ms Redmond: Phil. You haven't even got the name right.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: I said Phil.

Ms Redmond: You didn't; you said Bill.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: You should just give it up, I tell you. You're just so negative. Here we had someone who thought he was going to get in and did not even take the time to sit down with the bosses of world cycling.

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