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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 3276 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

elected. We all remember the sign "I voted for a dragway". That vote was a vote for the Labor Party because the Labor Party was making all the right noises in that regard. I think that those people have a right to feel very badly let down. Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened since the government came to power.

We started seeing reports earlier this year about the Majura Road dragway being stalled. Finally, Mr Quinlan responded in April of this year to some questions I put on notice in relation to the dragway by indicating that he had advised Mr Develin in a letter to him in April-I have sighted his letter-that government assistance in purchasing a lease would be dependent upon Mr Develin negotiating the transfer of a lease with any existing leaseholders and subject to a business plan that did not rely on government funding for construction or running costs for a new dragway facility. In other words, there might be some assistance in terms of getting the land, but there would be no assistance after that.

I accept that the dragway people would not have had the required funds to build the facility. The 2001 study I will refer to shortly shows, just looking at the dragway part, how effective that could be in terms of jobs, in terms of economic activity and in terms of bringing people to the ACT each year. Combined with a circular track, even a club circuit, which could be built for between $2 million and $3 million, that would be stage one, the start, of an excellent general motor sport facility in the Majura Valley.

I am not expecting the government to build the full facility straightaway, but building a dragway and a club circuit of 21/2 to 3 kilometres would be an excellent start because the people using the circuit would use the other facilities which would be part and parcel of the cost of building a dragway. The cost of building a dragway is, I think, between $6 million and $8 million. The report in 2001 said it would be $6.2 million, I think, but I am allowing a bit for inflation in saying $6 million to $8 million, and the cost of a circuit may be $2 million to $3 million.

We are not talking about a lot of money and motor sport in Canberra has never received much assistance from government. Fairbairn Park effectively built itself. It received minimal assistance from government at some stages. During the early 1990s there was none at all. I can recall giving some assistance, but it did not ask for much and it has only received limited assistance. I am talking in terms of $5,000 to $10,000 a year. The most Fairbairn Park probably received in one year was about $30,000 three or four years ago. It has never cost us money. It has never come begging for handouts. I think the track record shows that both the Canberra International Dragway people, who have never asked for recurrent funding, and the other motor sport people would be more than capable of running a facility, if one were to be built in the Majura Valley, at no recurrent cost to government.

In fact, when one considers the number of people who came to town for the V8s and who go to major motor sport events, when one considers the 1,000 or 2,000 people who would turn up at major events at Fairbairn Park, which was basically just about club facilities, and when one considers the several thousand people who would come along when the old dragway was operating, which would have been a much smaller dragway than would be envisaged here, one can see that the economic benefits would be significant. If the old dragway brought in about $2 million a year, what would having a full one and a proper circuit as well do there?

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