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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-03 Daily Xml
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Superloop Adelaide 500

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:30): I rise to speak about the Adelaide 500. I rise, noting that Adelaide has long had a car race. The Formula One car race, which as we know was stolen by the Victorians, was last held in 1995. The then state government struck a deal to stage a Supercars race in 1999, and indeed in 1999 the sensational Adelaide 500 was held. That first race meeting on the Adelaide street circuit since the Grand Prix was something to be welcomed, but it seems that some parties in this parliament want us to party like it is 1999. I have news for you: it is no longer 1999 for the Adelaide 500.

It does seem to me that this is more about politics than it is about practicality. In the budget bill debate, the member for Hurtle Vale, I believe, exposed Labor's commitment to bringing back the Adelaide 500 to our streets when, noting that there were 300-odd people out on the front of the Parliament House steps on a previous Saturday, she said:

Having run a marginal seat on nine votes whose constituents are front and centre and in love with the Clipsal, I just want to give bit of advice to the member for King. I know your electorate is front and centre, top of the tree in love with the Clipsal as well. King is a seat that loves its car racing. I think you need to do some work behind the scenes—

said the member for Hurtle Vale to the member for King—

otherwise your people are going to let you know all about it. We love our cars in the deep south, and I know that King is the same. I think we need to see a bit of work there—otherwise it will be a gift, thank you very much.

That is it. That is Labor's strategy for the seats in the north-east. They believe that bringing back a car race that has had its heyday—and, as Ian Horne from the AHA has said, has certainly 'come off the boil'—is going to win them north-eastern seats. What it will do is lose them the seat that the Labor Party say they need to win to take government, and that is the seat of Adelaide. I note that, while the member for Hurtle Vale may think that the residents of King want to see a car race in the city, the residents of the city sure as hell do not want it back.

Indeed, Zoe Bettison's, the shadow minister for tourism's, own FOIs could tell the Labor Party that, because that actually revealed that the south-east city residents have long lobbied for the car race to be removed from the City of Adelaide. When I came to this place, I campaigned on a platform of moving the car race down to Gillman. Indeed, a Port Adelaide street race would create far fewer traffic hassles in the city and have far less disadvantage for the other events that we currently have and have previously had on at the same time, such as the Fringe and the Festival.

Who cannot remember that Jay Weatherill, as Premier, had to get on the phone to stop the noise of the car race drowning out the opening night of the Festival, our premier event Why are we having events clash with each other, to the detriment of both?

My other warning to those Labor aficionados who have gone off and signed an MOU and signed away our rights on this—saying that they will bring back the car race to the streets of Adelaide, no matter what—is in the words of the YWCA, which spoke about its ongoing work when the car race was held, with the sexual harassment and the rise in violence against women on our streets during the Adelaide 500 events, whether they were sponsored by Clipsal or whether they were sponsored by the Superloop or whether, as we know, they could not find a sponsor at all.

I also remind members of the Labor Party about their own former minister, minister Bignell, who noted that the car race was dying and invested all his efforts in attracting Robbie Williams to save it, throwing away tens of thousands of free tickets each year, year in year out, to volunteers from the CFS and the like and bringing in bigger and bigger acts, all at an expense to the South Australian public, to save what has had its day. It is no longer 1999. We do not party like it is 1999. We need a car race that suits the times. Indeed, we need a Labor Party that is honest—if they are trying to capture votes in King, that they will not do so to the detriment of the citizens of Adelaide.

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