With just days to go until the start of the 2019 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, and less than 2 weeks away from the New South Wales (NSW) state election where the Liberals and Nationals Coalition will be seeking another 4 year term in government, it’s time to review the state of one of its big campaign promises from the last time around.
In the lead up to the 2015 NSW state election, Premier Mike Baird announced through an exclusive to The Daily Telegraph that should the Liberals and Nationals government be returned to power at the election, NSW would bid to steal the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix from Melbourne in the state of Victoria, and move it to Sydney. The Premier announced a bid team would be established and lead by Rod McGeoch, who headed up the bid for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and John Hartigan, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Limited in Australia.
The Government of Victoria and the organisers of the Australian Grand Prix, obviously displeased with the announcement reminded people that Melbourne held the hosting rights until 2020 with an option to extend for a further 5 years, and it is reported that the state of Victoria has exercised 3 years of the option, taking their hosting rights through to 2023.
Unimpressed: Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews
Mike Baird and the Liberal and Nationals coalition were re-elected to government, and yet the story of Sydney seeking to host the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix went quiet, with nothing having been heard of this $180 Million announcement for years now. To find out what happened I filed a freedom of information request on 31 January 2019 to the Office of the NSW Premier under the NSW Government Information Public Access (“GIPA”) Act of 1999, of which an excerpt of is below.
Request for information under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009
On 12 March 2015, then NSW Premier, Mike Baird announced that if the NSW Government was re-elected on 28 March 2015, that the Government would establish a bid team featuring Rod McGeoch and John Hartigan to have the Formula 1 (F1) Australian Grand Prix moved from Melbourne to Sydney.
It was also stated in an article in The Daily Telegraph [‘Sydney to steal Melbourne Grand Prix under $180 million plan by Premier Mike Baird’, Andrew Clennell, 12 March 2015] that the bid team would report to government by the end of the year (2015) on the economics of the race.
1. Is holding a Formula 1 race in Sydney still the plan or policy of the NSW Government under Premier Berejiklian?
2. Has the bid team reported back to the Government on the economics of hosting the race in Sydney?
a. If yes, I request a copy of that document.
3. Have any other reports, updates or correspondence (including letters, email, or any other method) relating to a Formula 1 race in Sydney been provided by the bid team to the NSW Government or the Premier?
a. If yes, I request a copy of those documents.
4. Was a bid for a Formula 1 race in Sydney ever lodged?
5. Is the bid team still in place, or has the project been disbanded, is otherwise inactive or shut down?
a. If the team is no longer in place, when was it disbanded?
6. What is the budget of the bid team, for each year since its inception in 2015?
7. How many staff are in the bid team, and what are their job titles?
Please provide all relevant documents for the date range of 12 March 2015 until the date that this application is received by the Office of the Premier.
[Hyperlink in the above excerpt added for convenience]
On 8 Feburary 2019, The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet informed me by letter that they had transferred my GIPA application to Destination NSW, the “lead government agency for the New South Wales (NSW) tourism and major events sectors”. Soon thereafter, on 12 February 2019, I received a letter from Destination NSW, accepting it as a valid application under the GIPA Act.
On 8 March 2019, I received a Notice of Decision on my application from Destination NSW, largely denying my application, but quite a bit can also be found within it.
What information does Destination NSW hold on the proposed Formula 1 race in Sydney?
From the decision document:
The searches as per your request for information resulted in the following documents:
1. House Folder Note – 9 April 2015
2. House Folder Note – 6 August 2015 – version 1
3. House Folder Note – 6 August 2015 – version 2
4. Email from Rod McGeoch to NSW Government and Destination NSW
5. Email from Rod McGeoch to NSW Government and Destination NSW/ Draft Report to Premier
The House Folder Notes
1. House Folder Note – 9 April 2015
2. House Folder Note – 6 August 2015 – version 1
3. House Folder Note – 6 August 2015 – version 2
A House Folder Note (HFN) is essentially a speech that has been written for a Minister or the Premier to use during Question Time in Parliament in case a question is asked on the matter either by a member of the Opposition or the Crossbench, or possibly as a “Dixer“, a question that is asked by government members to the relevant Minister (and always supplied by the Ministers office).
I searched Hansard, the transcription service of every word said in NSW Parliament by its Members for the current term of (the now prorogued) Parliament , which covers the period from 30 March 2015 onwards. No mention of a Formula 1 race in Sydney was made by any member in the entire last term of Parliament. The only mention of Formula 1 was a side note by Andrew Fraser MP, Member for Coffs Harbour on 6 August 2015, and not at all related to a race being held in Sydney.
I also ran specific searches for “Formula 1”, “F1”, “Race”, and “Motor” for the office holders of Premier, Mike Baird MP and Gladys Berejiklian MP, and the relevant Ministers, Stuart Ayres MP (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events from 2 April 2015 to 30 January 2017) and Adam Marshall MP (Minister for Tourism and Major Events from 30 January 2017 to current). I can state with reasonable confidence that these House Folder Notes were never used in Parliament. As HFNs are almost always marked “Cabinet in Confidence”, as are these Formula 1 related HFNs, their release to me was refused. Effectively, the only way to get a hold of these documents is for them to be read into Hansard by a relevant question being asked of the Minister for Tourism and Major Events in NSW Parliament Question Time. It is also common for HFNs of top issues of ministries to be given to the Premier in case he or she is asked the question. In any case, HFN’s get withdrawn from House Folders from time to time, and it is unknown what period of time the HFNs were present in the Minister’s question time folder.
The Emails
4. Email from Rod McGeoch to NSW Government and Destination NSW
5. Email from Rod McGeoch to NSW Government and Destination NSW/ Draft Report to Premier”
It seems a bit light for their to only be 2 emails from the bid team to the Government for what would be a $180 Million project, although we can see that there was at least a draft report for the Premier on the matter. My request for those documents was refused (and unfortunately details of the date the emails were sent were not released to me) based on reasoning that Rod McGeoch had an email footer on his outgoing messages that said, in summary:
this email and attachments may be confidential and subject to copyright or legal professional privilege. If you receive this email in error, please inform the sender immediately, delete it and do not use, copy or disclose it.
Seeing as Rod McGeoch is a member of the Board of Management of Destination NSW and was appointed to this position in 2011 as announced in a media release, it is clear that Mr McGeoch was acting in his role as a government official, and it was his outgoing email, for him to then rely on a disclaimer in his email footer is flimsy at best.
This was followed by more substantial reasoning that Rod McGeoch was consulted and did not provide consent to disclose the information requested by the application on the basis that his dealings were commercial in confidence and that If Destination NSW chose to breach these confidentiality provisions it would undermine the confidence the private sector has in the NSW Government and prejudice the ability of the agency to do business in the future, and that Destination NSW operates in a competitive global market for major events acquisition.
What was in the emails?
Within the lengthy reasoning for the refusal to provide the emails, it was stated that:
If the requested information is disclosed, it could undermine the current position of Destination NSW in the events market. Destination NSW would be placed at a competitive disadvantage in any market as the requested information related to the negotiation process, meetings, advice and terms. The information was provided to Mr. Rod McGeoch by Formula 1.
(Emphasis added)
What else did we learn from this request for information?
Is hosting a Formula 1 race in Sydney still the policy of the NSW Government?
Destination NSW also would not be drawn on whether holding a Formula 1 race in Sydney is still the plan or policy of the NSW Government under Premier Gladys Berejiklian, stating that “This would be a question for Department of Premier and Cabinet”, despite my application having been initially received by them, and it was also noted in the determination that the Department of Premier and Cabinet were consulted and did not provide consent to disclose information requested by the application, although it is not stated which part or parts they did not consent to.
Has the bid team reported back to the Government on the economics of hosting the race in Sydney?
As mentioned earlier, this was due to be provided by the bid team to the NSW Government by the end of 2015, although according to the determination document, Destination NSW state that:
“We are unaware of a final report being made to Government and NSW Premier”.
Based on this response, it is hard to see how anything other than a draft was ever communicated to the government.
Was a bid for a Formula 1 race in Sydney ever lodged?
The response to this question is just unbelievable:
Unknown
Yes. The NSW Government does not even know if it lodged a bid for its $180 Million Daily Telegraph front page election commitment.
Is the bid team still in place, or has the project been disbanded, is otherwise inactive or shut down, and if the team is no longer in place, when was it disbanded?
Unknown
The NSW Government may not know if it still has a bid team in place, but they do know who is or was in it though.
How many staff are in the bid team, and what are their job titles?
As per article two (2) staff was in the bid team assisted by Destination NSW. That staff was Mr. Rod McGeoch and Mr. John Hartigan. There is various information on their works in the public domain. If you wish us to collate, we are suitable to undertake this.
How much is all this costing NSW taxpayers?
- FY 2014-15: Nil
- FY 2015-16: $25,000
- FY 2016-17 onwards: $30,000
Please note these figures were the result of a specific request to the finance unit of Destination NSW. The above figures were not part of a document.
The use of the term “onwards” is rather interesting, as it indicates it is still being funded to this day, despite the fact Destination NSW admittedly does not know if the bid team even exists, and that it is over 3 years overdue in reporting to the NSW Government on the economics of hosting a Formula 1 race in Sydney. It is also interesting that Destination NSW is unaware if the team still exists, yet it is apparently still funded. But where has the money gone? John Hartigan was the Chairman of Destination NSW from his appointment in 2014 to 2018 when his retirement from the position was announced, yet despite this, it is still unclear whether his retirement has had any impact on his position on this Schrödinger’s bid team that is funded, yet may or may not still exist. Similarly, Rod McGeoch was (and still is) throughout the time of this saga a director of Destination NSW, so theoretically their salaries would have been normally covered through their positions as Chairman and Director.
It would be interesting for any follow-up enquiries to dig further on this point, and to probe on the usual possibility of international travel, which would not be unreasonable for an international event such as the Formula 1 World Championship.
Further information
To read the full response from Destination NSW, please see the file below. Please note that the file size has been reduced from the original 10 MB file that was sent to me by Destination NSW, as they decided to print the document and then scan it as a PDF before sending it to me.
GIPA F1 Sydney – Destination NSW [PDF – 1.6 MB]
Warren Hudson 