The proposal to run a high-performance car race in the Parliamentary Triangle should be greeted with enthusiasm. It should not be shunned or sneered at, which has been the reaction of many Canberrans in the past to the thought of car racing in the city. Objections by some Canberrans residents in the mid-1970s to a proposal by then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser for a high-performance track resulted in the proposal being dropped, to the economic detriment of the city. Mr Fraser proposal came in the wake of savage public-sector cuts. Canberrans were foolish to reject it.
A car race in the triangle would make a lot of noise and cause a bit of traffic inconvenience for a few days a year. It is a sacrifice well worth making. Different people get their pleasure from different things. We should rejoice in the diversity. The car race would help diversify the image of Canberra in the eyes of many Australians. The city would not be just the city of the politicians and the War Memorial. To some extent the automotive industry has helped in that regard with the Summernats event. The excesses of the early years of that event are now a thing of the past. Now it brings economic benefits, colour and difference to the city once a year. So too with the proposed new event.
The sheer incongruity of high-speed cars racing through the triangle’s streets normally dominated by Parliament, the High Court, the National Library, the National Science and Technology Centre, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery is immensely appealing for a couple of days a year. The wide-angle television shots from the air will bring a view of Canberra into the loungerooms of Australia and help dispel a view that Canberra is only about culture and politics.
And speaking of matters automotive and Canberra, someone must knock federal and ACT bureaucratic heads together to resolve the impasse over the Pialligo dragway lease.