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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-03-28 Daily Xml
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Armstrong, Mr Lance

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (15:27): My question is to the Minister for Sport, Recreation and Racing. Will the minister be following the lead of the United States Postal Service and take steps to reclaim the millions of dollars of state taxpayer money that have gone to convicted drug cheat, Lance Armstrong, while he was participating in the 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) (15:27): If I wanted to waste a whole lot of time, I would. We sent a letter to Lance Armstrong back in 2013, I think it was, after all this stuff came out that he was a drug cheat. Let's remember that, when we signed him up, he was celebrated as one of the greatest athletes in the history of sport. As a sports journalist, I was there in 1999 when he came back from a near-death experience with cancer and won his very first Tour de France—one of seven. So, this is the background in which we had him come to Adelaide. What he did for the Tour Down Under was to take it to another level and we have kept it at that level and taken it—

Mr Wingard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mitchell is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: —onward and upward since then. We contracted—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: We contracted Mr Armstrong to come to South Australia to take part in the Santos Tour Down Under to boost visitor numbers, to boost TV ratings, to boost visitors to South Australia and to grow the race, and he did all four of those things. It was later exposed that, during his professional career, he was a drug cheat, and no-one condones drug cheating.

We did write to him four years ago and asked politely for the money back, and we haven't received a response. We can spend a lot more money on stamps, keep the US Postal Service in business, but sometimes you look at it and ask, 'Would we really go after him?' Yes, he is a cheat. We paid him to do a job, which was to boost visitors to South Australia, which was to boost the standing of this race on a global scale.

Let's make no mistake: the Santos Tour Down Under is the biggest bike race outside of Europe. Next January, we will celebrate its 20th anniversary. If you look back at the trajectory of those 20 years, the first year that Lance Armstrong came he took it from a medium-level race to a top-level race, and no-one can take that away. I know there were plenty of people on that side of the chamber who were pretty excited that Lance Armstrong was coming here.

I think the slogan that some genius came up with was: if you didn't see Bradman bat, if you didn't see Ali fight, make sure you get to the Tour Down Under to watch Lance ride. I think that was it. I think a lot of South Australians came out to see that. A lot of people from interstate and overseas came here. He made the announcement that he was coming to South Australia with Bill Clinton. There were some big guns out there in Lance's corner.

While the US Postal Service owns the team and had some reputational damage done to its brand, which is what it is probably going after, Lance Armstrong did our event no reputational damage. He built the numbers and he did everything that we contracted him to do. I am not a lawyer, but I would say that if you went after him to say 'breach of contract', they would ask, 'On what grounds?' He is a cheat, we hate cheats and we don't like Lance. His name has been erased from the history of cycling, and so it should have.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: That was in the paper four years ago. Yes, breaking news—we sent a letter.

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