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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1439 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

We are set to play an important role. I cannot guarantee this at all, but generally the logistics of the world cup will mean that seeded teams will be placed here and there. All the nations will arrive and there will be various national caravans in the country. Somehow someone has got to design a process whereby games are played everywhere but gradually coalesce towards the finals, and it is very unlikely that we will be seeing a final in the ACT.

Teams will be coming out to Australia to acclimatise. I daresay that one or two or more teams will be looking to stay at the AIS, for example, to warm up, to get used to local conditions. There is a reasonable probability that at least one of the seeded teams will come to the ACT and probably then play at least two early rounds in the ACT. We might get two other games, but I think that is about the punting around town at this stage.

It does not include the Wallabies. I am sure if I offered the organisers something like $2 million or $3 million there might be a chance-it would seem to be about the only chance. The other chance is that the organisers will take notice of campaigns such as that which Ms MacDonald has initiated, where they recognise that they really do have an obligation to the dedicated supporters of Canberra and the region. The Brumbies have a very strong following outside of Canberra-in fact, a long way from Canberra. A good mate of my son who lives in Auckland is a Brumbies supporter. He is a Welshman who has lived in Auckland for quite some time. This very courageous man walks around Auckland and goes to the pub wearing a Brumbies jumper, which we sent him.

The rugby world cup is a premier world event. It is one of those events where you would certainly like to be part of the television audience. I think the 1999 world cup attracted over 1.7 million direct spectators and a world-wide television audience of 3.1 billion. Of course, that television audience did not watch all of the games and different games were beamed into different countries. Nevertheless, the less important games, of course, are not going to be beamed around the world. We would certainly like to think we would catch one or two that are beamed to other countries where there is a potential for tourism to Australia and particularly to Canberra.

I am hoping we do get the Wallabies, and I hope we also get teams from countries like England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales-the countries that have a big following. I remember that when the British Lions were here there was whole legion of supporters behind them. They were the best natured, happy-go-lucky bunch that you could meet. They came to this town, spent a big quid and displayed good humour. I hope whoever comes will do the same thing. I think the ideal fixture in Canberra would be Australia versus England in about the second round. That would be, I think, as good as we could hope for.

Let us hope that the organisers and the ARU-whatever influence the ARU has in this process-take into account not just the bottom line advantage that will accrue to them and international rugby but, in fact, the advantages that will accrue to the jurisdictions where the game is played. I cannot imagine, for all a million dollars, that Adelaide will get a spectacle. They will get a crowd and a large part of that crowd will be curiosity based. But I just do not see rugby union benefiting hugely from a considerable number of games being played at Adelaide simply because the South Australian government has been prepared to put up money.

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