The review of the first of five planned WRC events -- Repco Rally Australia --- is currently in limbo. With the former Minister, Ian Macdonald, gone, the task of addressing the review has been passed to Minister Eric Roozendaal who has yet to be briefed about the review's report. There are some points about the review of this event that are worth noting. The first is that it was mandated by law (Clause 25 of the Motor Sports (World Rally Championships) Bill 2009). Secondly, the review's aim is NOT, as claimed by some, to determine how to make the event better in the Northern Rivers. It is to determine whether the event goes ahead in the Northern Rivers again at all. Thirdly, all of the submissions to the review were stated by the HMRA to be viewable online when the review was completed. This is now not to happen; submissions will only be accessible to the public at Repco Rally Australia's offices in the Tweed Shire Council's building in Murwillumbah. There is a suspicion that this restricted access has been brought about because so much of the information in those submissions is embarrassing to the NSW Government and Events NSW (the company that comes under the NSW Premier's Department and which was responsible for the multi-million dollar 'purchase' of the rights to 5 WRC events in NSW). That information ought to also be embarrassing to the rally's organisers who promised the two local commmunities so much in term of economic advantage and promotion of the area through TV coverage. But it seems unlikely that they can be embarrassed for they must have always been aware that these were empty promises. All they wanted was to get their hands on the local gravel roads at no cost. The review process should also come under some scrutiny. The main reason for the appointment, by Ian Macdonald, of the Homebush Motor Racing Authority (HMRA) was to smooth the path of the V8 races in Homebush in the face of strong opposition from residents. Macdonald determined that the HMRA was to instigate and lead the review of the 2009 Repco Rally. (This looks a bit like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop!) The person chosen to conduct the review was Mike Cahill of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). Mr Cahill appears to have no particular qualfications that fit him to conduct such a specialist review. IMC had, until Macdonald's resignation, a prominently-placed picture of the former Minister on its website. Cahill was recently re-appointed to Macdonald's Agricultural Ministerial Advisory Council. What of the independence, then, of the review process? Will the Minster be the WRC's puppet? Alan Evans, the event's new Chair (after the departure of Garry Connelly), has also been making statements, widely reported in the media, to the effect that the rally is coming back to the Northern Rivers. As of 18th June, with the Minister not yet briefed on the rally's review and certainly with no Ministerial or Parliamentary decision about the event's future in the Northern Rivers, Repco Rally Australia have a banner headline on their website that grandly announces the return of the event to the Northern Rivers, complete with a countdown clock to the event, in 2011. This is hubris. While RRA's website continues to state that the event WILL be held in the Northern Rivers in 2011 they are saying "We expect the Minister and the NSW Government to fall into lock step with us." Rally Australia and Evans are assuming that the Minister will be their puppet. They are thumbing their noses at the him, the local member(s) who insisted on the provision for the review of the rally after the first event being included in the legislation, and the NSW Government. They are showing their complete contempt for the two local communities who were their (often unwilling) hosts for the 2009 event. That the rally's return to the Northern Rivers is what Rally Australia wants -- and what the Paris-based FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) wants -- should be of no concern whatsoever to the Minister, whose task is to determine whether the Northern Rivers is a suitable location to which the rally should return in future on the basis of its economic and social effect on the area and the state. He should be more concerned with the fact that the event was a drain on the two local economies. It was almost certainly a drain on the NSW public purse ... since most of the business associated with the event went to Queensland companies and many of the fans stayed on Queensland's Gold Coast. Garry Connelly, the former Chair of the Rally's Organising Committee, in an interview with a motorsport magazine, described as "cheeky" holding the event in NSW but so close to the border that Queensland was going to benefit the most from it. Can it be purely coincidence that the rally was held only a short drive from south-eastern Queensland where Connelly lived and had his business? It was, as noted by World Champion driver Sebastien Loeb, an event that was entirely unsuitable to be run on residential roads and through National Parks. The entirely inappropriate imposition of the event in an area whose future is acknowledge to lie in ecotourism should also figure in the Minister's decision-making. The fight against this event to date had been based on lobbying, logical arguments and facts -- especially the poor history of the event in Australia in terms of $$ returns on investment. But if the event is forced back into the area in 2011 no one should be in the least surprised if many residents become more radicalised in their attempts to shrug off this economic and environmental burden. Brindabella Motor Sports Club BMSC Brindabella Motor Sports Club BMSC Repco Rally Australia Repco Rally Australia World Rally Championships World Rally Championships Kyogle Kyogle Tweed Tweed Murwillumbah Murwillumbah review report review report Brindabella Motor Sports Club BMSC Brindabella Motor Sports Club BMSC Repco Rally Australia Repco Rally Australia World Rally Championships World Rally Championships Kyogle Kyogle Tweed Tweed Murwillumbah Murwillumbah review report review report |