MotoGP Track Reveal Shows How Labor Handles Parkland Concerns

Motor Sports

Peter Malinauskas showed the $96 million MotoGP street track on Sunday. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

The government’s careful launch of Adelaide’s new MotoGP track on Sunday was not a noisy racing event.

In February, after taking MotoGP rights from Victoria, rider Jack Miller was asked to ride over the River Torrens footbridge.

But on Sunday, Premier Peter Malinauskas spoke inside an arts centre that felt more like a climate‑change TED Talk.

He stood beside two big trees while a slide show explained the government’s much‑talked‑about, $96 million street track.

More than half a dozen slides focused on the environment, trees and the eastern parklands.

"This area gets the most attention because many people are worried about tree loss," the premier said on Sunday.

Peter Malinauskas presents the MotoGP track design. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

The green tone of the day suggests Labor has dealt with a lot of its own worry about the parklands.

But it also shows its policies have changed after public pressure, even surprising one environmentalist.

A stark warning

To sum up, the Malinauskas government has met strong opposition to its plan for a new MotoGP street track in Adelaide’s eastern parklands.

A petition to stop the work has been signed by over 43,000 people.

Thousands have protested, urging the state to "stop the chop" of trees.

The protests follow a controversial upgrade of the North Adelaide Golf Course that required cutting 585 trees in the northern parklands.

Kirsty Bevan says she is surprised the government accepted her ideas. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

Conservation Council SA chief Kirsty Bevan, who leads the state’s top environment group, strongly opposed city MotoGP and wrote many letters to the government.

"The talks kept coming back, ‘We will go ahead with it’," she told the ABC.

The deadlock put her in an "uncomfortable position", but she said there is room to ask for "investment matching the damage they propose".

"I talked with the premier about long‑term effects on nature and the parklands," Ms Bevan said.

"The government could be known for destroying the parklands, or for developing in a way that helps nature.

"He was very interested in what that actually meant."

Nearly 400 trees will be removed in Adelaide’s eastern parklands for a new $96 million MotoGP street track, the state government announced.

That interest showed on Sunday when Mr Malinauskas highlighted the Council’s view that the whole track project would be "net nature positive".

This was linked to a new $15 million parklands package for butterfly habitats and water works for platypuses in the River Torrens.

"If you care about the environment and the parklands, you should care about this project because it improves them," Mr Malinauskas said.

He also mentioned many other upgrades to the eastern parklands, including new Fringe infrastructure, seen as sweeteners for skeptical stakeholders, especially in Town Hall.

Ms Bevan said she was surprised the government accepted the $15 million parklands package she suggested, adding: "It really floors me every time I think about it."

"I thought they would only offer three or four million."

The government has suggested many other upgrades as part of the transition. (Supplied: SA government)

She was also surprised to see the government agree that for every tree cut, ten new trees must be planted.

That is higher than the three‑to‑one replacement rate used for the North Adelaide Golf Course.

Because of this, the government says 3,770 trees will be planted for the track project.

A green movement divided

The Conservation Council has already faced criticism from other environmental groups for its "net nature positive" stance, showing a split in the green movement.

Councillor Keiran Snape, a leader of the stop‑the‑chop campaign, said the Council had "sold out our parklands to the corporate Malinauskas government".

"It is clear Conservation SA has been used by the state to greenwash the MotoGP announcement," he wrote on Facebook.

The premier says 42 important trees will be cut for the MotoGP track. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

In reply, Ms Bevan said, "I don’t react because we are non‑political, non‑partisan, and I don’t play politics."

"I know I did not sell out," she added, saying she had "lost count" of the signatures she gathered for the stop‑the‑chop campaign.

Another opponent, Adelaide Park Lands Association president Mat Monti, promised to keep fighting the project.

"We would ask the government to invest in the environment, plant trees, continue revegetation, and spend $15 million on the parklands," they said.

"But we do not want that money to be an excuse for destroying the eastern parklands for MotoGP."

Mat Monti says the government should fund the environment, but not as a cover to cut trees for MotoGP. (ABC News: Sarah Maunder)

However, as this column noted over the weekend, the street track’s future looks set despite growing opposition to the heritage‑listed parklands.

Questions now focus on Mr Malinauskas’s February comment, a month before the election, that 45 trees would be lost, not 377.

"He says he has a mandate to deliver this and people voted for it, and in some ways that is true," Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn told 891 ABC Adelaide.

"But it is worth thinking whether people would have changed their vote if they knew about 400 trees being cut."

"You also cannot ignore the large cost to taxpayers."

Rider Jack Miller rode over the River Torrens footbridge at the February announcement. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

Mr Malinauskas rejected claims he misled people in February, saying he "clearly said at the time that tree loss would happen".

"I gave the numbers we had then and later clarified that the 45 figure was for significant trees," he said.

He later added: "No government has added more new trees to the parklands in net terms than this one."

But Kirsty Bevan of the Conservation Council says those improvements do not happen in isolation.

"I still think the only reason I achieved these great results is because public pressure was very strong," she said.

"That pressure must keep going."

See more ABC coverage in your search results

Promotion