Public lockout at Albert Park GP precinct set to triple in length
The proposed changes, to be introduced to parliament by the state government, are part of the Australian Grand Prix Amendment Bill. The new laws would permit a race 'declaration period' of between seven and 21 days to accommodate the set-up and dismantling of the race infrastructure.
The community will be invited to provide feedback on the plan, which also includes updates to corporate and intellectual property rights, new permissions for non-motorsports events hosted by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, and an increased annual state payment to Parks Victoria for the ongoing maintenance of Albert Park.
'The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is one of the highest attended races on the Formula 1 calendar,' Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said.
'This consultation will ensure we're listening to the community as we create a safer and more secure Albert Park.'
The proposed changes come as the scale of the Melbourne Grand Prix continues to grow. The 2025 event broke attendance records, drawing 465,498 spectators over four days – an increase of more than 10,000 from the previous year.
In 2023 and 2024, Victorian taxpayers paid $100 million each year to cover the shortfall in revenue which failed to meet the costs of staging the grand prix.
The government says the new 21-day window will allow for safer, more controlled access for workers and reduced risk for park users during construction periods.
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Perth Now
37 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Former Aussie star's relationship with wife suddenly questioned
Questions are suddenly being asked about former Australian tennis star Sam Groth and his relationship with his wife, Brittany. Groth is now deputy leader of the Victorian Liberal party and the questions are centreing on how their relationship started way back in 2011 when Groth was coaching at Templestowe Park tennis club. Brittany was also at the club and she would have been 16 or 17 at the time. Groth is about seven years older. The Victorian law says: 'If you are between 16 and 17 years old, even if you agree, a person who is caring for you or supervising you (like a teacher, youth worker or foster carer) can't have sex with you, touch you sexually or get you to touch them sexually, perform a sexual act in front of you.' It has been reported that some of Groth's colleagues leaked their concerns to the media after Groth, 37, was made deputy leader in December. Questions have surfaced about the start of Sam Groth's relationship with now wife, Brittany. Credit: Getty Images The fear is now that the relationship, in its infancy, breached the law, and it could be used against Groth and his party during an election. Labor insiders are already calling it 'inappropriate'. Labor Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said on Tuesday: 'If you're asking me whether I think it's appropriate for a person that is in a position of influence or authority, like a teacher or coach, to be dating a teenager, then the answer to that is no. 'It's evidence that the Liberals remain at war with one another, and quite clearly, if you can't govern yourselves, then you can't govern the state'. Another senior Labor MP told News Corp: 'What he has done is really not appropriate.' Groth left his first wife Jarmila Wolfe (also a tennis player) in 2011. His relationship with Brittany followed not long after. The couple have previously discussed how their relationship started, with Brittany admitting they 'ended up hitting with each other and connecting from there'. She said Groth 'added me on Facebook immediately ... I think that I knew I wanted to be with him but he was in such a different space to what my friends and girlfriends were in.' In 2017 Groth spoke to about the start of their relationship. 'We met during my year off. So I had that year off in 2011 where I sort of stepped away from tennis,' Groth said. 'We are actually from the same suburb in Melbourne, and I was coaching at a club and Brit was playing a little bit there ... yeah, we sort of met through that time.' Brittany called it 'fate'. 'There was only a few small weeks where we could have possibly met each other. It was a small local club, I mean not many people play there,' she said. Opposition leader Brad Battin has defended Groth and called the questions over his relationship a dirty attack. 'Any attempt to besmirch the relationship of Sam, Britt and their children is a disgrace,' Battin said. 'Politics is a dirty business, but this attack has hit a new low in public life.' It's not the first time Groth has hit the headlines this year over allegations of impropriety. In May this year he was accused of getting drunk at the Australian Open and then using a colleague's chauffeur-driven vehicle to take him and his wife home. Groth had hosted a political fundraiser with Nationals MP Jade Benham and then entered a party zone at the tennis where it was claimed he got 'smashed'. Then-opposition upper house leader Georgie Crozier lent him her car for the trip home and later said Victorians 'deserve a lot better'. 'I'm incredibly disappointed,' Crozier told media in May. 'I think that Sam needs to explain his actions. I can't.' Groth was shadow minister for tourism, sport and events at the time, and the car was used for a trip from Melbourne Park to Rye on the Mornington Peninsula, a distance of about 100km. Groth later said he had nothing to hide and attended the 2024 Australian Open in both an official capacity and personal capacity. 'I was at the event to meet various stakeholders and attend meetings before being part of a fundraising initiative,' he said. 'The accusations around intoxication are wrong. 'Everything was and is above board.'
The Advertiser
40 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
Rogue AFL fixture looms as finals-deciding clash
With Gold Coast's postponed match against Essendon looming as an increasingly pivotal part of the AFL top-four race, an announcement on the timing of the rogue fixture is imminent. The opening-round clash on the Gold Coast was postponed because of Tropical Cyclone Alfred and rescheduled to the end of the season, rather than for either club's bye week. There have been reports the stray game could be played on the Wednesday between round 24 and the pre-finals bye. Now at the pointy end of the season, the Suns' and Bombers' vastly contrasting fortunes means the game could play a crucial role leading into what looms as Gold Coast's first finals series. The eighth-placed Suns (48 points) are four points ahead of the Western Bulldogs but four behind fourth-placed Geelong, who are on 52 points along with Hawthorn, GWS and Fremantle, but Gold Coast have a game in hand. The injury-ravaged 15th-placed Bombers are on an eight-game losing streak, and up against it to win another game this year. It means a likely - and potentially percentage-boosting - win for Gold Coast could be what launches the Suns into the top four. "That's the last fixture, so that's the final part of flexing the fixture," AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said on Tuesday. "So we're working through that at the moment, "I reckon we'll be making an announcement on that in the next week or so." Dillon was speaking ahead of the AFL's industry summit, which included representatives from all clubs, including Tasmania. He acknowledged the gulf in quality between the AFL's top nine and bottom nine this season, but considered it an anomaly. "There is a bit of a gap," he said. "But I think what's really pleasing for some is you look at the top eight or nine this year with four teams that have come from outside to inside. "You often get anomalous seasons. Last year, we were at 13 or 14 teams in it right to the end. This year's a little bit different "What we do have is an incredibly tight competition at the pointy end." The league has come under criticism for Essendon and Carlton continuing to play in prime timeslots despite their decline in fortunes. "Maybe this year's just a bit of an outlier in terms of the teams that were selected earlier on, some big Victorian teams who were in pretty solid form at the time the floating fixture was put in, that hasn't come to fruition," Dillon said. "But again, the games are still rating pretty well, they're still pretty well attended, but we'll take on board feedback from fans and broadcasters and our clubs as we look to the 2026 fixture." Dillon said the league needed to strike a balance between ensuring the fixture was flexible, while also looking after the fans. He was "really confident" the Tasmanian expansion club would be ready for the 2028 season, but stressed their licence was dependent on the building of the roofed 23,000-capacity stadium at Macquarie Point. With Gold Coast's postponed match against Essendon looming as an increasingly pivotal part of the AFL top-four race, an announcement on the timing of the rogue fixture is imminent. The opening-round clash on the Gold Coast was postponed because of Tropical Cyclone Alfred and rescheduled to the end of the season, rather than for either club's bye week. There have been reports the stray game could be played on the Wednesday between round 24 and the pre-finals bye. Now at the pointy end of the season, the Suns' and Bombers' vastly contrasting fortunes means the game could play a crucial role leading into what looms as Gold Coast's first finals series. The eighth-placed Suns (48 points) are four points ahead of the Western Bulldogs but four behind fourth-placed Geelong, who are on 52 points along with Hawthorn, GWS and Fremantle, but Gold Coast have a game in hand. The injury-ravaged 15th-placed Bombers are on an eight-game losing streak, and up against it to win another game this year. It means a likely - and potentially percentage-boosting - win for Gold Coast could be what launches the Suns into the top four. "That's the last fixture, so that's the final part of flexing the fixture," AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said on Tuesday. "So we're working through that at the moment, "I reckon we'll be making an announcement on that in the next week or so." Dillon was speaking ahead of the AFL's industry summit, which included representatives from all clubs, including Tasmania. He acknowledged the gulf in quality between the AFL's top nine and bottom nine this season, but considered it an anomaly. "There is a bit of a gap," he said. "But I think what's really pleasing for some is you look at the top eight or nine this year with four teams that have come from outside to inside. "You often get anomalous seasons. Last year, we were at 13 or 14 teams in it right to the end. This year's a little bit different "What we do have is an incredibly tight competition at the pointy end." The league has come under criticism for Essendon and Carlton continuing to play in prime timeslots despite their decline in fortunes. "Maybe this year's just a bit of an outlier in terms of the teams that were selected earlier on, some big Victorian teams who were in pretty solid form at the time the floating fixture was put in, that hasn't come to fruition," Dillon said. "But again, the games are still rating pretty well, they're still pretty well attended, but we'll take on board feedback from fans and broadcasters and our clubs as we look to the 2026 fixture." Dillon said the league needed to strike a balance between ensuring the fixture was flexible, while also looking after the fans. He was "really confident" the Tasmanian expansion club would be ready for the 2028 season, but stressed their licence was dependent on the building of the roofed 23,000-capacity stadium at Macquarie Point. With Gold Coast's postponed match against Essendon looming as an increasingly pivotal part of the AFL top-four race, an announcement on the timing of the rogue fixture is imminent. The opening-round clash on the Gold Coast was postponed because of Tropical Cyclone Alfred and rescheduled to the end of the season, rather than for either club's bye week. There have been reports the stray game could be played on the Wednesday between round 24 and the pre-finals bye. Now at the pointy end of the season, the Suns' and Bombers' vastly contrasting fortunes means the game could play a crucial role leading into what looms as Gold Coast's first finals series. The eighth-placed Suns (48 points) are four points ahead of the Western Bulldogs but four behind fourth-placed Geelong, who are on 52 points along with Hawthorn, GWS and Fremantle, but Gold Coast have a game in hand. The injury-ravaged 15th-placed Bombers are on an eight-game losing streak, and up against it to win another game this year. It means a likely - and potentially percentage-boosting - win for Gold Coast could be what launches the Suns into the top four. "That's the last fixture, so that's the final part of flexing the fixture," AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said on Tuesday. "So we're working through that at the moment, "I reckon we'll be making an announcement on that in the next week or so." Dillon was speaking ahead of the AFL's industry summit, which included representatives from all clubs, including Tasmania. He acknowledged the gulf in quality between the AFL's top nine and bottom nine this season, but considered it an anomaly. "There is a bit of a gap," he said. "But I think what's really pleasing for some is you look at the top eight or nine this year with four teams that have come from outside to inside. "You often get anomalous seasons. Last year, we were at 13 or 14 teams in it right to the end. This year's a little bit different "What we do have is an incredibly tight competition at the pointy end." The league has come under criticism for Essendon and Carlton continuing to play in prime timeslots despite their decline in fortunes. "Maybe this year's just a bit of an outlier in terms of the teams that were selected earlier on, some big Victorian teams who were in pretty solid form at the time the floating fixture was put in, that hasn't come to fruition," Dillon said. "But again, the games are still rating pretty well, they're still pretty well attended, but we'll take on board feedback from fans and broadcasters and our clubs as we look to the 2026 fixture." Dillon said the league needed to strike a balance between ensuring the fixture was flexible, while also looking after the fans. He was "really confident" the Tasmanian expansion club would be ready for the 2028 season, but stressed their licence was dependent on the building of the roofed 23,000-capacity stadium at Macquarie Point.
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Vic Shadow Minister says state's treaty negotiations will be a ‘multi-billion-dollar process' with hundreds of millions already spent
Victorian Shadow Treasurer James Newbury has projected the state's treaty negotiations will become a 'multi-billion-dollar process', considering the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in proceedings already. The governments of Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan and former premier Daniel Andrews had spent at least $382 on negotiating a treaty with Indigenous Australians since 2016, according to analysis by the Herald Sun. A Victorian government spokesperson refused to verify the masthead's figure, but they said $308 million had been poured into the treaty process since the 2020-2021 budget. Referring to the almost $400 million that has reportedly been invested already, Mr Newbury took aim at the Allan government over the significant sum, questioning what it had been spent on. 'Victoria spent four hundred before we've even got to a treaty. So what have they spent the four hundred million on? 400 [million] without doing the treaty. I mean, that's why we're opposed to it as a Coalition," he told Sky News Australia on Monday. 'What the government we know will now do is spend billions of dollars on a treaty. If they're spending 400 [million] on the admin beforehand, we know it's gonna be a multi-billion dollar process.' 'And that's the government's hiding the figures in terms of the bigger treaty, because we know it's going to be a multi-billion dollar thing. It's wrong, we're opposed to it, we've said it loudly and clearly, and frankly Jacinta Allen owns this one and she's wrong.' Meanwhile, fresh research has claimed costs related to treaty negotiations have soared to close to $800 million within the last decade. Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) findings published on Sunday claimed that since 2016, the Victorian government had spent $776.2 million on programmes related to the treaty's development. Titled 'Victoria's expensive, secretive, and divisive treaty process', the report found $100.6 million of the alleged spending had been committed in the 2026 financial year alone. The research findings also said as much at 241 meetings regarding the development of a treaty could be held in the 2026 financial year, based on average meeting numbers in previous years. The research comes after the Victorian government's Yoorrook Justice truth telling inquiry handed down its final report earlier this month following four years of proceedings. The treaty is now set to progress to parliament, with Ms Allan and the state's First People's Assembly confirming that legislation to pass the agreement would be tabled after the winter break. The state is also negotiating with local Indigenous communities on separate treaties.
