AIR RACE - NARROWS BRIDGE AND CAUSEWAY
Can the minister please inform the house of the impact of the small aircraft race in my electorate over the weekend, and whether the planes managed to take out the Narrows Bridge and the Causeway, as some of the nay sayers predicted?
Ms S.M. McHALE replied:
I thank the member for Perth for his question. I acknowledge that the runway was in the member for Perth’s electorate, and that part of the event was held in the member for South Perth’s electorate, so they should both be extraordinarily happy.
This was indeed an extraordinary global event. It was a tremendous success for Perth and Western Australia. More than 300 000 people saw the event on Sunday from the foreshore and Kings Park. Countless others saw it from offices. The public response was awe inspiring. More people attended the Red Bull Air Race than attended the Commonwealth Games, the AFL grand final and the Melbourne Cup at Flemington combined. In addition, approximately 40 000 people saw the rehearsals on Saturday. If the attendance figures of Saturday and Sunday are combined, almost half a million people saw the event.
The member for Perth spoke about people who panned the event and bagged the fact that the government had taken the decision to hold the event. What did opposition members say? On 13 September -
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, members!
Ms S.M. McHALE: When I said that we anticipated that hundreds of thousands of people would watch the Red Bull Air Race, the opposition numbers man, the member for Vasse, said -
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas interjected.
Ms S.M. McHALE: What was proven was that the event was a phenomenal success. More than 300 000 people attended. It was a proven success.
The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Carine and the Minister for the Environment to order for the first time.
Ms S.M. McHALE: I am glad that the member for Carine attended because she could see for herself what a phenomenal success the event was. I hope that in future when the government brings new events, she will, along with her opposition colleagues, be supportive of what we are trying to do.
The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Carine to order for the second time.
Ms S.M. McHALE: I think the record shows what the member for Carine said about the event. Let us look at the economic returns. There has been more than $10 million in economic and media impacts, and it is likely to be a lot more. It means that every hotel room in Perth was booked out over the past weekend. It also means that cafes and restaurants were doing incredible trade over the weekend.
Ms S.M. McHALE: The member is wrong. The hotels were booked with leisure traffic. Hire car companies were overwhelmed with bookings. Those bookings flowed on to other tourism-related services. It was a fantastic success for Perth. As a Mr Bradley Woods stated -