Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

The World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world. One of the key benefits of the World Cup coming to Australia is that games would be played in 10 cities across the country, from Townsville to Geelong, from Perth to Sydney. Unlike the Sydney Olympic Games, where events were held in one city, this will benefit all cities across the country. Even those cities that will not host games will have the chance to host teams as they prepare for the event.

Of course, the Australian government, with the FFA, is also bidding for the Asian Cup in 2015. If we are successful with the World Cup bid, we will also host the Confederations Cup in 2021. So there would be a great deal of benefit from it.

In terms of viewership, just to put this in some perspective, the Sydney Olympics was viewed by 3.6 billion people worldwide. The South African World Cup was viewed by 40 billion people. That is the power of the World Cup; that is why the Australian government is working extremely hard— (Time expired)