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Grand Prix Blowout Can No Longer Be Justified: IngramIndependent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has called on both sides of politics to end the spiralling costs of the Australian F1 Grand Prix By Craig Ingram - 6th October 2010 - Back to News , which has reported another multimillion dollar loss be funded by Victorian taxpayers.
In a document tabled in Parliament last week, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation reported that the F1 Grand Prix ran at a $49 million loss last financial year. "The extreme cost of this millionaires’ car race to Victorian taxpayers has gone well beyond a joke and it is clear our community receives very limited economic value from the Melbourne Grand Prix," Mr Ingram said.
"It is an unfortunate fact that there is bipartisan support for the Grand Prix, but it is clearly time for a political rethink and a commitment to put the $50 million into core government services that result in better community benefit.
"The taxpayer bailout for the Grand Prix has well over doubled in the past five years from $21 million and from an original cost of around $5 million per annum in its early years. "As a local MP, I continually fight for funding for core government services and infrastructure such as adequate funding for health, education, disability services, roads, paramedics, police, environmental services, management of our National Parks, pest plant and animal control (including wild dogs) and other important community and tourism infrastructure.
"Arguably, all of these services and projects have much greater community merit and deserve the taxpayers’ support well above the funding of the F1 Grand Prix," Mr Ingram concluded.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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