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Revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold – and interstate politics make for magnificently petty rivalries. South Australians have had to wait 30 years to get even with Victorians, but no doubt they’re popping the champagne and chortling in those hoity-toity accents of theirs after this news.
Victoria has lost the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix after three decades of hosting the event, in a substantial blow to the state’s major events calendar.
The 2026 race – to be held from October 23–26 – will be the last to be held at Phillip Island, which has been the home of the race every year since 1997.
Victorian Sports Minister Steve Dimopoulos on Wednesday revealed the deal had fallen through after the government rejected owner MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group’s final demand that it move the event to Albert Park in Melbourne.
Mr Dimopoulos said this was because the government was not willing to “sell out” Phillip Island, did not want to impose further on the Albert Park community which hosts the F1 and did not want to compromise the F1.
Aaaaannnnddd… right in time for the South Australian state election.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has poached the MotoGP from Victoria, after the Allan government failed to reach a deal with the event organisers.
In a major coup for SA and a blow to Victoria’s major events calendar, Mr Malinauskas on Thursday confirmed speculation Adelaide had snatched the race.
After almost three decades at Phillip Island, the Victorian government announced on Wednesday that the state would no longer host the race, after it rejected what it said was owner MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group’s final demand to move the event to Albert Park.
The MotoGP will be held for the last time at Phillip Island this year, before it moves across the border to a “city centre circuit” in Adelaide from November 2027 as part of a six-year agreement.
Now all Victoria has left is the dubious public spectacle of its weekly machete brawls. Maybe the Labor government’s mates in the CFMEU and bikie gangs can kick in some of the $15 billion they’ve grifted from the taxpayer and make it an arena spectacular instead of just a shopping centre appearance.
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett – he who so enraged the crow-eaters three decades ago when he pinched the F1 from under their noses – is probably secretly pleased that it’s rival Labor governments squabbling and punching each other in the face, not to mention paying him the backhanded compliment of copying him.
Mr Kennett said he believed Mr Malinauskas had taken a leaf out of his playbook.
“I’m crying because it’s (MotoGP) leaving, I’m laughing because your premier has just taken another page from the Jeff Kennett bible,” the former Victorian premier told ABC Radio Adelaide on Thursday morning.
“He has recognised, as we did, the importance of getting major events as part of the offering, which not only is economically good, but … the community love it.”
The announcement will – as no doubt intended – probably clinch the election for South Australian Labor. Not that it’s been in much doubt, anyway.
The only real anticipation in the election is whether it will cement One Nation’s rocketing popularity in the polls at the only poll that matters: the ballot box. The latest polls are looking good for One Nation – and dire for the Liberals.
The Liberal Party risks being wiped out in South Australia after an extraordinary Newspoll showed it could fail to hold a single seat as One Nation surges to a 10-point lead over the opposition, guaranteeing Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas a thumping victory.
In a dramatic demonstration of One Nation support on the eve of an election, an exclusive Newspoll conducted for the Australian shows Pauline Hanson’s party has rocketed to a 24 per cent primary vote as the Liberal vote collapses to just 14 per cent […]
If replicated statewide the Liberal Party could fail to hold any of its 13 seats – a prospect made more likely by the fact many of its few seats are in rural and regional areas where the One Nation vote is expected to be higher and where sitting Liberal MPs are also being challenged by independents […]
If the result is replicated on polling day it would also guarantee the election of former Liberal senator and Australian Conservatives founder Cory Bernardi, whose announcement as the One Nation lead candidate for the SA upper house this month has given the party added profile in SA.
With a 24 per cent primary vote One Nation would also snare the second upper house spot with candidate and state One Nation president Carlos Quaremba securing a quota.
Still, South Australians can be pretty shy when it comes to actually breaking with the established duopoly. In 2018, independent senator Nick Xenophon was a favourite for preferred premier, but failed to win a seat.
