Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Youth and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to update the House on the progress of Australia’s bid to host the largest single sporting event on the planet—the FIFA World Cup.

The Prime Minister indicated our support for an Australian World Cup bid in February of last year in an announcement with the Chairman of the FFA, Frank Lowy.

At the COAG meeting of March 2008 all Australian states and territories committed to work cooperatively with Football Federation Australia in support of its bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

The House may recall that in December 2008 I was pleased to announce the government was providing $45.6 million to back Australia’s bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Whilst we so often in this place focus on that which divides us, I would like to acknowledge the bipartisan support for this funding and for the bid from those opposite and state that it is important that we work together on this issue when we know that bipartisan support will play an important role in Australia’s chances of success.

Since the announcement of our support for Australia’s 2018 World Cup bid, FIFA has announced that it will hold a simultaneous bid process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. In February, Australia subsequently submitted our expression of interest to bid for both events. We are still focused on 2018, but of course we welcome the opportunity to bid for the two options. I am pleased to advise the House that in Zurich this week the Football Federation Australia (FFA) formally submitted Australia’s formal bid registration to FIFA for both the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

In addition to Australia, this week saw confirmation of 11 bids from 13 countries across three con-federations:

• Asia
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Korea Republic
• Qatar
• and of course Australia
• Europe
• Belgium and the Netherlands (joint bid)
• England
• Russia
• Spain and Portugal (joint bid)
• North, Central America and Caribbean
• USA
• Mexico

We take our counterparts seriously, but we know that, when it comes to hosting major international events, no one does it better than Australia. Olympics, World Cups, Commonwealth Games—we have stunned the world in the past and we know we can do it again. Australia can deliver a World Cup of which the country, the region and the world can be proud. We can deliver a world-class event that can run smoothly in quality facilities and with Australia’s proven record of welcoming visitors and supporting games. As a member of the Asian Confederation, Australia is well placed to provide an event that the region can support.

As a member of the Asia region, Australia is well positioned as a candidate. Asia is a major growth area for football and is also the region that had the largest share of the television audience for the 2006 Germany World Cup. Our zone contributed the highest share of the overall cumulative television audience, with 8.28 billion in-home viewers or 34.2 per cent of the global total. In partnership with the FFA, the Australian government is working hard to build a world-class bid.

Just last week the Prime Minister wrote to all premiers and chief ministers seeking COAG’s formal confirmation to work cooperatively with the FFA in support of its bid, to send a further message to the world that Australian governments at all levels are united in our approach to hosting the FIFA World Cup. I will now be conducting ongoing cooperation and negotiations with the states and territories to ensure we develop the best possible bid. We will need serious consideration of infrastructure and needs going forward as well as continued cooperation at all levels. The government will continue to work with all to develop the best possible planning and facilities for the World Cup.

When it comes to the next stages of the bid process, let me be clear about Australia’s intentions: we are in this to win it. As FFA chairman Frank Lowy has said, ‘Football is a world game and we are serious about our efforts to bring the event to Australia.’ The FFA has established a bid team, to be chaired by FFA chairman Frank Lowy and led by FFA CEO Ben Buckley. The next time frame in the bidding process will come in April, when FIFA will distribute the bidding agreement, the hosting agreement and other bid and hosting documents, which will further clarify the requirements that will be expected of a host for the FIFA World Cup. Bidding parties then have until December this year to submit the signed bidding agreement and until May 2010 to submit the bid book. The decision on who will host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups will be made by the FIFA executive in December 2010.

Hosting the FIFA World Cup will bring significant economic benefits to Australia, including boosts to tourism, infrastructure and jobs around the country. And a successful bid would be an important catalyst for investment in our infrastructure—stadiums, roads, rail, airports. Outcomes from the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany speak for themselves:

• two million international visitors;
• 85,000 people employed in the hosting of the games;
• more than 3.3 million spectators; and
• a cumulative television audience of 26 billion, broadcast in 214 countries.

Hosting the FIFA World Cup would also have long-term social and economic benefits. Australians are supporting our bid en masse. Just one small example is the Facebook group supporting Australia’s bid, which already has 75,000 members across Australia. I encourage all Australians to get behind the bid and bring to our shores the biggest single sporting event on earth. I pledge to continue to work to ensure that the government adequately supports the Football Federation of Australia to have every opportunity for success and I pledge to keep the House informed of progress in this exciting venture.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Boothby to speak for 6½ minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Boothby speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 6½ minutes.

Question agreed to.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Training and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the opposition I would like to indicate that the opposition support Football Federation Australia’s bid for Australia to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup and will provide whatever support and assistance we can to help Australia win the right to host the cup. We supported the government’s decision in February last year to back a bid and we supported the government’s decision to provide $45.6 million to FFA in December last year.

Football in Australia has come a long way in recent years and has continuously reached new heights since a comprehensive review by David Crawford in 2002-03 and further reforms led by the Australian Sports Commission and Rod Kemp, the former Minister for the Arts and Sport, to put soccer on a more professional footing in Australia. When David Crawford handed down his report in 2003, he said that some might find the recommendations confronting. The work Rod Kemp put into reforming football and implementing the recommendations from David Crawford’s review has gone a long way towards establishing the building blocks for a vibrant, confident football code in Australia. The Socceroos qualifying for the 2006 World Cup for the first time since 1974 was a visible sign of the improvement in the standing of the sport in Australia. The growing success of the A-League, Adelaide United’s appearance in the Asian Cup final and growing participation at the grassroots level are further indications of the health of football in Australia.

Australia’s formal submission this week to FIFA to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup is another milestone in the continued rise of football in Australia. One of the examples to demonstrate the benefit of hosting is the United States’ hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 1994. That hosting led to an enormous surge in interest in football, or soccer, in the United States and an enormous increase in the numbers of young people, school students and college students playing soccer, and it has helped to spread the game of world football into a country where previously it had not taken much of a hold. Also, at the 1996 Olympic Games, the United States women’s soccer team really captured that nation’s attention and led to a big increase in young women and women at college taking up soccer.

These achievements are remarkable when we consider where soccer has come from. It is less than six years ago that Soccer Australia was declared broke. For FFA now to be in a position to place a bid to host the World Cup is a tremendous achievement and an indication of how successful these reforms have been. Let us hope that the recommendations David Crawford will hand down to this government on Australian sport, which we are all eagerly anticipating, will, if implemented, have the same positive effect on Australian sport. A successful bid for Australia to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup would bring tremendous tourism benefits. The FIFA World Cup would be the biggest global marketing campaign for Australia since the 2000 Olympics, which has been recognised as the most effective marketing campaign and exposure this country has ever experienced. A global event like the FIFA World Cup would bring unprecedented tourism benefits to Australia and, with tourism bodies fully committed to supporting the bid, there is a united approach to securing the competition in 2018. The FIFA World Cup would be equal in world viewing to the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. Based on the previous World Cup in Germany, a World Cup here could benefit Australia to the tune of nearly $6 billion through more jobs, visitors and infrastructure spending.

As the minister has said, along with Australia’s bid, FIFA have received 11 bids from 13 countries across three confederations. We are competing against a strong field, but this has not deterred us in the past. We should remember that it took three bids for Australia to win the rights to host the Olympic Games in 2000. Our past success in hosting major events such as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games demonstrates our ability to successfully host a FIFA World Cup. In addition, the growing participation in football in Australia and the fact that the Asian region is a major growth area places us in a strong position to host the World Cup. Australian clubs now compete in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League. Australia now competes to be one of four teams from the Asian Football Confederation to go to the World Cup, giving us a much better pathway to the World Cup than in the past. I have tremendous confidence in FFA chairman Frank Lowy and FFA chief executive officer Ben Buckley to lead the charge for this bid, and I congratulate them on their work so far. In 2003 former sports minister Rod Kemp declared:

Soccer is the sleeping giant of Australian sport …

A successful bid for the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 would no doubt underpin this statement.