Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak on this condolence motion, and I do so as someone who has competed for many years as a navigator in car rallies. I want to put on record a few notes about how much of an inspiration Peter Brock was to ordinary motorsport club members. I am sure that debates have already been had about how many Holdens were sold because of Peter Brock or how many people took up motorsport because of Peter Brock, or how many people were just prepared to go at life a little bit harder because of Peter Brock. He used to sign people’s autograph books saying, ‘Live your dream,’ or ‘Live life, Peter Brock.’ One thing that is certain is that he was a real inspiration to people to make them do that or to make them think about doing that.

Just as an aside, as the member for Blair, I was considerably thrilled last weekend to see Craig Lowndes win the Peter Brock Trophy. Craig Lowndes is, to many motorsport enthusiasts, like a new Peter Brock. He has many of the same attributes: he fires you up in the same way, he inspires you, he makes you feel great—and not only that, he comes from the electorate of Blair. He is a very good competitor and so we in the electorate of Blair are mightily proud of Craig Lowndes’s achievements.

Back in 1979, I remember going to the Townsville showgrounds with a friend of mine, and all these battered cars were lined up. I was a teenager then, and we were just agog at all these cars. Of course, they were cars that were engaged in the 1979 Repco Round Australia Trial—which Peter Brock won. It was a hell of a spectacle, and the whole of the nation basically stopped to watch the 1979 Round Australia Trial. I remember that there were a lot of other big wheels in that event—Shekhar Mehta is a name that comes to mind—people who were really internationally known. Peter Brock won that event hands-down and in a very impressive fashion.

That trial showed the degree of determination, dedication and strength of purpose that Peter Brock had. In those days, when they ran something like a reliability trial it was not just a reliability trial for the vehicles. They raced for massively long hours, and they were so tested by the event—with lack of sleep, high pressure, adrenaline, making dodgy roadside repairs and then continuing—that it showed not only that the car was good, which was an issue for the public, but also what incredible strength of human spirit those competitors had. To win those events was a real inspiration, and as a young fellow it was certainly a massive inspiration to me. Later on in life I did go on to compete in car rallies, and I have to say that I trace my interest and my involvement right back to that time when we went along to the dusty old Townsville showgrounds and saw those cars.

I am currently a member of the Brisbane Sporting Car Club, which is the oldest sporting car club in Australia, and I have been a member there since 1993. I was formerly involved in the North Australian Motor Sport Club in Darwin. To move away from much of what has been said, I thought I would make a few comments about some of the ill-informed commentary that has been published about issues to do with car rallying. People have noted that Peter Brock died in a car rally, and they have made some differentiation between him competing in a car rally and his many magnificent successes at the mountain and in motorsport competitions on circuits. All motorsport is dangerous. All motorsport is deadly. There are people who think that if you are a spectator at a car rally it is dangerous to sit on the outside of a corner. That seems to be pretty obvious, but it is also dangerous to sit on the inside, because a car that gets out of control is just two tonnes of metal and it can be very dangerous no matter where you might sit. It is a sport that is naturally very dangerous.

There have been incredible advances in safety over the years. At the time when Peter Brock was competing in the Round Australia Trial, you did not need a crash helmet. At that time, under the laws of motorsport, you could compete with a lap sash seatbelt. Today, to go in that type of event, you need a welded-in steel cage, the helmets are scrutinised, you have expiry dates on your seatbelts and you need logbooks for your car. There is massive additional expense and massive additional scrutiny. The types of cars and the requirements for safety now are incredibly complex and incredibly detailed—and every single effort is made to ensure that safety applies.

It applies on the circuit as it does in rallying. I know that to be a fact. I have been a witness myself to the growth of these safety rules. Those of us who compete grump about it from time to time because we remember the good old days when we did not need all this stuff. Spare a thought for the moment for the person who is responsible for running the car rally and whose job it is to ensure to the best extent possible that event is made safe. You have to realise you have to comply with those rules as they are sensibly laid down by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport and internationally by the FIA.

The day after Peter Brock was killed I was competing in round 5 of the Queensland Rally Championship. We had a minute’s silence for him. Round 6 of the Queensland Rally Championship is about to start. It is on 4 November. They have circulated the supplementary regulations for the event and they have Peter Brock on the cover with his 1979 around-Australia car. It just shows you I was not the only guy who was so struck by that event. I think everyone was.

I mentioned the difference between car rallying and competing on a track. There has been what I think was some terribly ill-informed commentary, particularly in the Australian newspaper, directed at Peter Brock’s co-driver, Mick Hone and the issue of the use of pace notes in competing in a car. Pace notes are notes you make when you have time to go over the course before an event. You write notes about every single corner and prepare for it in advance. In the case of the event that Peter Brock was killed in, he had some notes that had been drawn up by another competitor, but he did not go out with his navigator prior to the event to check that those notes suited his driving style. That is a very significant thing.

I noticed in the commentary that there was criticism made of the notes and of the navigator. The fact is it was a decision between the two of them not to go and do the reconnaissance. If they had done the reconnaissance, you might say they would have known that that corner tightened up more than it said in the notes. That is something you could probably assert. You could perhaps assert that, but no-one knows for sure. All we know for certain is, if you are going to compete in a car rally or a race, you have to be very careful. You have to bear in mind that you are working as a team in that sort of environment. You have to do those sorts of things. But people do it because they are having fun. They do it because they are living their dream. They do it because they are living their life in the same sort of spirit that Peter Brock so often expressed when he was signing those autographs. That is why people love to do this sort of thing. They love to get out and to see just how fast they can go. Forever, Peter Brock will be the embodiment of that spirit.

While we continue to refine and provide more and more safety opportunities for people who are prepared to compete in car rallies and on the circuits and who enjoy it so much, we must remember that as human beings we love that competitive spirit. That is always what it has to be about. That has to be the first thing. I really pay tribute to and salute Peter Brock, and I pass on my commiserations to his family because that was the passing of a great Australian. After all the awards—and they have been covered many times in this debate—that he achieved, he certainly deserves recognition from all Australians. But it is his embodiment of that go-forward spirit and great pioneering attitude that everyone who gets involved in motor sport aspires to. They aspire to be like Peter Brock, to have that kind of spirit, and to win through regardless of the obstacles that are thrown in their way. While we have to keep safety and things in mind, may we always remember that wonderful spirit because that is what I think provides the motivation in many aspects of life. I thank the House for the opportunity to speak in this debate. Once again, I pay tribute to the great Australian Peter Brock.

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