Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion and am very happy to speak. I want to start by thanking my friend, the member for Forde, for approaching me to be the co-chair for the Parliamentary Friends of Motorsport. I know how important they are to our community and to Australia more broadly. It's great to see him, a former competitor, here in this place. My colleague the member for Hasluck, used to ride bikes, as well as the member for McEwan. And the member for Spence—who's not in here right now—used to race in the past as well. I'm sure there are others in the parliament who once raced.

When we let people know that we were launching this event, there was a lot of interest and a lot of acknowledgement about how important motorsports are to our nation. It's a massive contributor to the NT economy, and I'm very keen to see it grow. I reject the claims that I hear from some from time to time that it's not a real sport. Anyone who has ever been to a competition knows the skills required and the hard work and athleticism that goes into it—not just by the drivers and the riders but also by their support teams. We thank the volunteers, because it's the volunteers who make it all happen, day after day and week after week, around our great nation.

It's entertaining, it's thrilling and it's a huge employer, being an economic boost for our regions. As the member for Forde outlined, the total gross annual output of Australian motorsports is valued at more than $8.6 billion. For the NT, a recent Ernst & Young report put the economic benefit of motorsports to the NT at just under $100 million, but that was without the bikes. When you add in the bikes, the benefit is well over $100 million. It's a huge economic driver.

Almost 200,000 Australians participate in motorsports across the board each year, and more than 65,000 people work to make competitions a reality, both in direct jobs and, of course, through those vital unpaid volunteer positions. People do it because they love the sport. It's a sport that inspires a tremendous amount of passion and enthusiasm.

The other thing worth noting, as the various competitions travel around the country, is that motorsports inject money and excitement into so many small towns, and that's vital for them. The fans spend money on accommodation, retail, food and drink. The knock-on effects flow through so many other industries and supply chains. From Supercars in Hidden Valley, in my electorate in Darwin and so many other different motorsports in the Northern Territory through to the Red Centre Nats and the Finke Desert Race in the Red Centre, Territorians love our motorsports. When there's a competition on, the whole place buzzes.

The member for Forde and I want to keep that going and build on it to keep building regional Australia. We want to see those jobs and career pathways created for future generations, including for girls and young women—and for men and women of all ages. There's a role for everyone in motorsports. On that note, I visited the Girls on Track training day in Darwin recently and saw how much those young girls and teenagers enjoyed learning about all aspects of motor racing. They really enjoyed it.

This parliamentary friendship group that we've launched is national, so I've been really happy to try to help the efforts at Wakefield Park Raceway and get that track up and running again. This Saturday night just past, I was pleased to be down in Alice Springs for the MotorSports NT Awards. On a bipartisan note, the NT sports minister, Kate Worden, and also a member of the opposition in the NT Bill Yan, the member for Namatjira—he has a strong history in motorsports down there in Alice Springs—were there.

I haven't got time to go through all the winners in detail, but I do want to acknowledge them quickly. We had: Junior Official of the Year, Chantel Fisher; Junior Rider of the Year, Aiden Blowers; Junior Driver of the Year, River Spitzbarth; Rising Star, Zac Hannon; Volunteer of the Year, Nina Kells; Official of the Year, Jan Cartwright; Administrator of the Year, Gail Kroonstuiver; Rider of the Year, Emma Lavercombe; Driver of the Year, David Ling; Event of the Year, Chariots of Thunder Sprintcar Series; Club Person of the Year, Gail Kroonstuiver; NT Club of the Year, Central Australia Drag Racing Association; and NT Champion of the Year, Emma Lavercombe. It was a great event.

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