Lord Mayor stands against MotoGP as city awaits vital consultation process
Battlelines are being drawn in the lead-up to the official announcement of exactly how Adelaide’s MotoGP course will be delivered in South Australia.
The Adelaide City Council Lord Mayor has said the ‘pain’ of creating the circuit isn’t worth the ‘gain‘ while SA Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas has responded by calling this attitude ‘madness’.
The confrontation is playing out in local media after the council recently received a briefing from the SA Motorsport Board about the running of the Supercars Finale in late November.
After being informed there would be earthworks relating to the MotoGP track also going on at this time several questions were asked by councillors seeking details about the motorcycle event and what trees would be removed.
Council was told that the track planning wasn’t at the approval stage and that a separate briefing would be made sometime in July.
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith, a former minister in the Labor state government, then went public on local radio saying said she didn’t believe the MotoGP needed to be held in the parklands.
”The key question is: is the pain worth the gain?” she said. “I think it’s going to be a difficult event. I don’t think the pain is going to be worth the gain.”
Mr Malinauskas immediately hit back, saying, “Here is a major event, probably the biggest we’ve hosted since the Formula 1, in the heart of the city that will drive a lot of activity and we’ve got the Adelaide City Council trying to stop that.
“The Lord Mayor and the council have made it clear that they’re opposed to MotoGP in the city anyway. In fact, they don’t want MotoGP in South Australia at all.”
Ms Lomax-Smith took to social media to underline the reasons for her opposition to the development.
“My position remains the same: before any final judgement is made, the community deserves to see the full proposal and understand its implications,” she stated.
“Based on preliminary analysis undertaken by our staff, there could be impacts on a significant number of trees within Victoria Park and along surrounding roads, with the toll anywhere from 80 to upwards from 200.
“There are also questions about the construction of a large pit building, changes to road infrastructure and the potential disruption associated with road closures and reconstruction works.
“Importantly, the final design has not yet been publicly released, which is why I continue to call for greater transparency and community consultation.
“This is not simply a debate about trees but about the future use of the Adelaide parklands, public access to these spaces, the impact on surrounding roads to people moving in and out of the city, and whether the benefits of the proposal outweigh the costs.”
Mr Malinauskas believes the issue of trees masks the council’s true intent.
“Whether it’s one tree or 20 or 45 the council’s opposed to this… so they’ll inflate the numbers as best as they can,” he said. “They’re not doing it with the purposes of getting answers for people, they’re doing it with the purposes of undermining the event for the state, which I think is a pretty extraordinary position.”
The Malinauskas government, which earlier this year was returned in a sweeping majority, has huge powers available to press ahead with the circuit based on the original 1984 Grand Prix Act. The sweeping powers granted by this legislation has seen decades of debate and even confrontation between the government and community groups.
AMCN approached the SAMSB for clarification on the timetable for public consultation and a spokesperson confirmed the redevelopment was is still in the design phase.
“Once completed, the design will be lodged with the FIM and FIA and then all relevant information and imagery will be shared. No firm dates on this as yet.”
The recent South Australian State Budget allocated $3.3 million specifically for planning the first MotoGP race. This followed an earlier commitment of $185,000 to produce Adelaide MotoGP licence plates to promote it.
Meanwhile the controversial $45m Greg Norman-design redevelopment of the North Adelaide Golf Course is continuing full-steam-ahead with nearly 600 trees axed despite daily protests.
The government has also beaten off rival states to seal a deal to keep the AFL’s Gather Round until 2029.
As an indication of how SA can evolve events to maintain fans’ interests, next year’s round has a free parade featuring players from each club on the Friday night in Adelaide’s CBD, with free public transport that afternoon. A blockbuster feature game will then take place on Saturday.
If the Victorian government had put a similar effort into developing the MotoGP experience at Phillip Island, it may not have lost its contract.
More than 270,000 footy fans attended this year’s Gather Round and it’s claimed the first three-year contract contributed more than $285m to the SA economy for an initial outlay of $80m in non-capital investment and another $10m to upgrade local football infrastructure.
Ms Lomax-Smith also claimed that having the MotoGP held at The Bend instead of the city would still see significant commercial value for Adelaide.
However, AMCN understands that there is no Plan B involving The Bend as a back-up in the contract with Dorna. It’s Adelaide or nothing.
