After five years, it has become clear the race organisers cannot muster an AFL grand final crowd or match the 97,000 who attended the MCG to see the Australia vs New Zealand Rugby Union Test. The best they could do on the Sunday race day was fewer than 90,000 people. This was despite the fact that over $7 million would have been spent on advertising and other forms of promotion, free public transport to the event and an undisclosed number of free tickets. Perhaps next year they will pay people to go. In a sense, the corporate guests are already paid patrons!

The count is particularly important to the campaign because we are getting publicity about the increasing discrepancy between our figures (which are accurate) and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation's figures. I believe that the message is finally getting out to the public. If the AGPC cannot be trusted to give accurate attendance numbers, can anything else they say be trusted?

A major focus of our campaign for the next few months will be the government plans to seek to extend the contract for the race in Albert Park for another five years. A key aspect will be the release of information about the licence fees and public subsidies. The Chairperson of the Audit Review of Government Contracts, Professor Bill Russell, has written to us advising that he "has requested that a number of Grand Prix related contracts be provided to the Review for assessment." Whether the Bracks Government will accede to this request and what information will be made publicly available will be a test of its credibility.

Keep up the fight!
Tim Gilley, Convenor

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Remind Premier Bracks of his Election promises
While media reports on plans for the GP contract have been confusing, indeed misleading in the case of one newspaper, Steve Bracks seems hellbent on doing another Jeff on Melbourne. The reported decision to extend the contract to 2011 has been made without community consultation, before the completion of the Audit Review of Government Contracts and without any assessment of the value of the event undertaken independently of the AGPC. Even Mr Kennett indicated that he thought 10 years would be enough. (Herald Sun, 18/7/98)

Those who voted for the Labor Party and supported its campaign had believed its commitment to greater consultation, openness and accountability when in government and did not expect it to be a signatory to unreasonably secret contracts. Labor was thought to be genuinely committed to protecting the urban environment, and urban public open space in particular; after all, Labor has promised a legislated Parklands Code.

During the next month we appeal to our members and supporters, and indeed all Labor Members of Parliament to remind the Premier of these commitments. Save Albert Park calls on the Government not to take any further steps to extend the contract for the Grand Prix until:

• The Audit Review of Government Contracts has examined and reported on the Grand Prix contracts.
• The Government has provided a comprehensive report on expenditure by all departments and government authorities in establishing and supporting the event since 1993, including expenditure on entertainment and maintenance of the pit garages and circuit.
• A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, including an environmental assessment of the impact of the event on Albert Park Reserve and the urban area, independent of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, has been completed and released.
• The AGP Act has been reviewed and amended to ensure that the appropriation of Albert Park is better regulated and that the AGPC is made more accountable to the public for its activities in the Park.

Albert Park Reserve is clearly an inappropriate venue for motor racing and especially for a contract for motor racing lasting longer than 10 years. If the Bracks Government and Ron Walker are committed to long-term Formula One racing in Victoria, it is incumbent on the Government to commence planning for an alternative permanent track. "Decades", to use Ron Walker's terminology, of Formula One in Albert Park is a financially irresponsible and shortsighted strategy. After years of annual recurrent engineering costs (currently $14 million p.a.) arising from use of a temporary circuit and the months of disruption to Albert Park, at the end of the contract motor sport would be left without a world-class home. The Government should be working with the hotel, automotive and motor sport industries to review the future of existing circuits and plan for the years ahead.

Contact Premier Bracks
1 Treasury Place, Melbourne 3002; tel: (03) 9651 5000, fax: (03) 9651 5298
101 Douglas Parade, Williamstown 3016; tel: (03) 9399 9022, fax: (03) 9397 7227
email: steve.bracks@parliament.vic.gov.au

Visit Labor's Parliamentary Team site (www.vic.alp.org.au/people) & find out contact details for your local Member of Parliament.

ALP members: seek the support of your branches & talk to your local parliamentary representatives.

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Race week protest activities
The "Lemon on Wheels" attracted media attention and featured prominently in The Australian and Emerald Hill Times. While the attendance count was the priority activity this year, there were many other ways members were able to participate.

Flying squads of yellow ribboners roamed the race environs, aerial art was again installed on house roofs in the area, the closing of the park was marked by our presence at the Children's Community Playground, and a bus decorated in banners and slogans circled areas close to the circuit. This year we were saved the regular "Airport Meet and Greet" as Bernie Ecclestone once again gave Melbourne's Grand Prix a miss.

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Lemon launch
The "Lemon on Wheels" campaign was launched outside 3AW, with media present on Tuesday 29 February at the time of Premier Bracks' weekly session with Neil Mitchell. While 3AW awaited his delayed arrival, the SAP media spokesperson was invited on the program for a five-minute interview.

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Pit straight protest
Accompanied by a "lemon on wheels", two groups of Save Albert Park members kept the annual appointment with the media in pit straight, (much to the chagrin of the Grand Prix Corporation) and three people locked on to infrastructure. With perfect timing, Ron Walker arrived just in time to be confronted by a number of members waving a SAP banner (in case he was in any doubt who they were). Media interviews with several members were broadcast on television news programs that night.

At our "corporate tent", which carried messages about the costs to the taxpayer, another member was interviewed by a French television crew.

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Race day silent vigil
Save Albert Park members held a four-hour silent vigil inside the main entrance to the grandstand and corporate areas. The highly visible location made for a prominent display of banners and placards. The Melbourne Workers Group Street Theatre is thanked for its contribution to the protest. A group of German journalists who plan to do a feature on SAP filmed the protest and the count.

SAP thanks all those who organised actions, prepared protest materials, helped make the "lemon on wheels", spent hours on the phone or counting patrons, and supported the many raceweek activities.

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1999 post race report
The Mayor of the City of Port Phillip, Dick Gross, launched the 1999 Grand Prix Post-Race Report at the Community Playground on 29 February. In introducing the Mayor, Tim Gilley described the Children's Community Playground (now a site for portable toilets and surrounded by Grand Prix infrastructure) as a symbol of all that is right with community and all that is wrong with motor racing in a city park.

Tim called on the Bracks Government to:

• Prepare a comprehensive environmental report on the effects of the Grand Prix on Albert Park
• Enforce the licence conditions of the set-up and dismantling of race infrastructure
• Ensure that the park is restored fully after each race in compliance with the Australian Grands Prix Act.

Dick Gross noted that "we are all confronted as we stand in this children's park by the inappropriateness of having a car race in a park" and that the length of time taken to set up and take down the temporary infrastructure, and the extent of remediation were in the words of one councillor "a disgrace". In a subsequent press interview the Mayor paid tribute to Save Albert Park, describing it as "a living symbol of resistance to the commercialisation of public parkland".

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Media reporting of 2000 Grand Prix
Amidst the familiar promotion-driven hype of the race week, there were signs of a healthy scepticism emerging in press reports.

• The Australian Financial Review (10/3/00) appeared to have a subtle dig with its headline, "$20m in GP packages - it's the pits".

• The Australian (7/3/00), reflecting on the poaching of the Heineken Golf Classic, suggested "They need the extra profit to pay the heavy financial burden of the Formula One Grand Prix."

• The Age and Sunday Age allowed five of its journalists to depart from "GP correctness" to a degree that perhaps signals a shift in editorial stance. These picked up on the park closure, tobacco advertising, questions hanging over the attendance figures, corporate freebies, and the less attractive features of the "circus".
  "Of course, this nexus between the sport of motor racing and the business of car sales makes for a confused morality. The inherent contradiction of an event celebrating fast cars at a time when governments are campaigning for drivers to slow down is apparent. So is the appropriation of a public park for what is plainly and unabashedly a private, profit-making exercise. This Grand Prix might be Melbourne's window to the world, but through it, the world sees only a showroom. The protesters still have a point." (Greg Baum, The Sunday Age, 12/3/00)

• The Herald Sun, as one of the official sponsors, continued to excel itself with the usual mixture of sloppy reporting, embarrassing hype and excitement over minor celebrities and hired lackeys posing as guests, all in the name of promoting rather than reporting on the event. The only seriously interesting guest we were supposed to have, the Irish Prime Minister (Bertie Ahern) was running around the Olympic track at Homebush on race day. Quite when he visited the Grand Prix seems to have been a well kept secret. All the same, Mr Ahern received a SAP letter briefing him on the Grand Prix in the Park.
  The Herald Sun ran speculative stories on an imminent extension of the race contract, with no apparent foundation. These reports were accompanied by embarrassing expressions of cringe - Bernie Ecclestone "was thrilled". "He told me in no uncertain terms that it was one of the greatest events he had seen" Grand Prix chief Ron Walker said, and "He told me that it was watched by 600 million - a record viewing crowd for Formula One." (Herald Sun, 13/3/00).
  Those with longer memories than Mr Walker's will recall that Mr Drewer, then with the AGPC, claimed in 1996 that the Grand Prix was watched by 650 million. No one seriously believes these figures any more (see our August 1999 Newsletter).
  In the end the Herald Sun outreached itself and blew it. Its 13th March Voteline question "Will it be good for Melbourne to have the Grand Prix until 2011?" received a 57% NO vote!

Patrick Smith should have the last word: "Apparently, the Grand Prix is on this week. You wouldn't know it though, would you? Not unless you tried to walk your dog at Albert Park." (The Age, 8/3/00).

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SAP attendance count 2000
During the 4-day race period 150 Save Albert Park members carried out a comprehensive and professional count of everyone who entered the public gates from when they opened to 3.00 pm (2.00 pm on Sunday), plus a number of entries outside opening hours and at staff gates.

Comparison using total inflow figures
"Total inflow figures" include non-ticket holders, namely those who are there in a paid or unpaid capacity to help run the event. Even without discounting for these non-ticketholders, the Save Albert Park figures were again substantially below the figures released by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

Comparison using attendance by ticket holder figures
To calculate "Attendance by Ticket Holders" the count subtracted holders of a "credential" rather than a ticket, and also people leaving before 1pm (2pm on raceday) who would be expected to return and therefore be counted twice. "Credential" holders include event management and staff, racing teams, media, caterers, police, St John's Ambulance, bands and cigarette girls - also "Lake Events Competitors" who contribute to an illusion of park "business as usual" while swelling the numbers entering the gates. All can be identified by the colour of their pass. The 1996 impact study reported 1062 media personnel, 1077 CAMS officials and 6,000 employed by the Corporation and other franchise holders.

Comparison using attendance by ticket holder figures - race day only
We calculate that non-ticket-holders made up 12% of the race-day total inflow, leaving a race crowd of 89,760. This percentage is an increase on 1999. The main point to emphasise is that since 1998 the discrepancy between the AGPC figures and SAP's "total inflow" numbers for the 4-day race period has increased each year from 34,000 to 69,000. When the "attendance by ticket holder" figures are used, the discrepancy has increased from 60,760 to 110,000!

Save Albert Park's opposition to the use of Albert Park for motor racing is not concerned with the success or otherwise of the Grand Prix as an attraction. We do, however, have legitimate concerns about the reliability of a range of information released by the AGPC, and certainly about claims which may affect the long-term use of the Park for the Grand Prix. The AGPC has a clear interest in boosting any indicator of the support for the race at the current location. A responsible Labor Government would be asking the AGPC to explain publicly the basis of its numbers. It should also require an explanation of the use, if any, of the laser counters, which according to our expert advice are not sophisticated enough to
(a) provide an accurate inflow count, or
(b) distinguish inflow from outflow movements of patrons, or
(c) differentiate between ticket holders and "credential" holders.

The Herald Sun's treatment of the attendance count has not helped alleviate scepticism about the figures. Its graph of attendances over the years conveniently omitted the 1996 figures so that it could show a steady rising graph. This bit of devious reporting was bettered only by the claim that "Over the four days, 359,500 passed through the turnstiles." (Herald Sun, 13/3/00).

Thanks again to the 150 people who contributed to this huge undertaking. Particular mention should be made of those who oversaw the whole operation and those who undertook to draw up rosters to cover some 700 person hours at the gates. The Rostering Committee and Gate Leaders did a tremendous job. The count served once again to demonstrate Save Albert Park's organisational capacity and commitment.

Footnote: On Labour Day (Moomba Monday) 250,000 Melburnians "turned out to watch as 14 colourful trams trundled down Swanston Street" (Sunday Age, 19/3/00).

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Tobacco advertising
SAP welcomes the recent statement by Dr Michael Sedgley, President of the AMA, that:

• Tobacco advertising should be removed from the Grand Prix as soon as possible, before thousands more young Australians are seduced into adopting this deadly habit and that:
• A Grand Prix in 2001 which is free of tobacco advertising would prove that the Government is serious about stamping out tobacco advertising and saving the lives of thousands of AustraliansÓ (The Australian, 10/3/00).

Everyone will be watching with interest the outcome of the 24 March meeting of the six State attorneys-general to consider legal opinion regarding a damages action against the tobacco industry. If the Victorian Government is serious about legal action to recover the costs of caring for people with smoking-induced diseases, it must urgently re-assess its support for tobacco advertising at two major events in the State.

Michael Danby, Federal MHR, has had to remind Dr Wooldridge, Minister for Health and Aged Care, that 60 days have passed since he placed questions on notice regarding exemptions given to the Grand Prix (see February Newsletter).

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Another tainted study?
Save Albert Park is disappointed to read media reports that the Government has allowed the Australian Grand Prix Corporation to commission another study of the Grand Prix. The only information SAP managed to extract from the office of the Minister for Major Projects and Tourism was that a new economic impact study "is under consideration".

SAP has written to the Minister reiterating our wish to have input into the methodology, forwarding a position paper on our expectations for any new cost-benefit analysis and a copy of Francis Grey's critique of the 1996 report. We have emphasised the need for an evaluation independent of the AGPC.

We were also amazed to read a media report in which Premier Bracks predicted an increased economic impact before the study had even commenced! (The Age, 3/3/00) The same article included claims by the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry that the Formula One Grand Prix and motor show would generate direct benefits of between $125 and 150 million.

Enquiries to VECCI revealed that this forecast was based on their assumption that 15% of the total claimed attendance (345,000) would be international and overseas visitors. It had mistakenly assumed that this figure represented individual patrons, instead of multiple attendances over 4 days. When the 1996 NIEIR report figure of 17,000 primary visitors is applied to the VECCI model, the result is a direct benefit of only $32 million!

This is an excellent example of the origin of an urban myth. Save Albert Park has written to VECCI about this misrepresentation of the benefits of the Grand Prix.

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Invitation to Government Ministers
SAP has sent copies of the 1999 Post-Race Report to Ministers Garbutt, Thwaites, Madden and Pandazopoulos and invited them or their senior advisers to a guided tour of the park to inspect the damage at first hand.

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More international links
The City of Port Phillip's exchange person with the Obu City Council in Japan is writing an article on the SAP campaign for the Obu City newspaper.

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Newsletter contributions
Copy deadline for the May Newsletter is Tuesday 18 April.
The editorial group welcomes articles from members, news of community group events and other campaigns.

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