Melbourne major events doubt after Premier axes Victorian Major Events Company

VICTORIA’S status as Australia’s major events capital is under siege after Premier Daniel Andrews’s axed the body that landed everything from the Comedy Festival to the Grand Prix.

VICTORIA’S status as the nation’s major events capital is under siege after Premier Daniel Andrews’s axing of the body that landed everything from the Comedy Festival to the ­Australian Grand Prix.

The legacy of the Victorian Major Events Company is being squandered, says Ron Walker, the businessman at the helm of the VMEC for a decade. In June, Mr Andrews ­absorbed the stand-alone company into the new Visit ­Victoria state tourism body.

“It’s a sad day. It was an honorary board with low overheads and it doesn’t make any sense to abolish it,” said Mr Walker, appointed as VMEC chair by Labor premier Joan Kirner in 1992. He ensured Victoria won big-ticket events and is synonymous with the success of the Albert Park GP.

Mr Walker said: “Since its inception, every premier — Kirner, Kennett, Bracks, Brumby, Baillieu and Napthine — has supported the success and independence of VMEC. Regretfully, the current government recently decided to close VMEC’s office in Albert Rd and merge the company into Visit Victoria.”

He said most staff had opted not to work with a new CEO and board in the new Department of Tourism structure.

Multiple ex-VMEC figures share his fears, one warning that Victoria risks missing out on the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child musical and cricket’s T20 World Cup final in 2020.

There are fears Victoria risks missing out on cricket’s T20 World Cup final in 2020.

Tonight, the acting Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Natalie Hutchins, said the changes were necessary.

“While the Victorian Major Events Company helped ­Victoria leap ahead of the other states two decades ago, things have changed and we’ve refreshed our strategy to ­remain No. 1,” she said.

“We’re proud of our past, but you don’t stay No. 1 by standing still. While the other states play catch-up, we’re moving further ahead.”

Government sources say the new body is in advanced negotiations about securing a number of major sporting and cultural events.

But Mr Walker and others told the Herald Sun the public service mentality now in place had quashed the VMEC’s lean operating model and introduced political grandstanding, which had cost us events.

“The board had a code of absolute secrecy in order to prevent other cities or states from copying the company’s successful model, and they only shared their plans with the premier and treasurer of the day,” Mr Walker said.

From a humble start, the VMEC “quickly became one the most successful events bodies in the world”, he said.

Mr Walker, a former lord mayor and Liberal Party ­national treasurer who garners respect across the political aisle, said every other state had now caught up with Victoria and was throwing punches on the world stage just as Victoria was hurting its model.

“Today, every state has an events company — all competing for the same sporting and cultural events because they recognise that major events put cities on the world stage and have an enormous impact on state coffers,” he said.

Another former VMEC figure said planning to win events such as theatre productions took years, and this was now falling by the wayside here.

He said New South Wales’s events body has already been to London to meet the producers of the new West End hit musical, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, yet Victoria had not.

“It isn’t even on their radar, and that hasn’t happened before,” he said.

The Harry Potter and The Cursed Child musical isn’t even on Victoria’s radar. Picture: Supplied

On the T20 World Cup final in four years, he said Victoria should be at the front of the line for that, but questions were being asked. “The World Cup will be played in Australia, but will Victoria get the final? That is the big prize.” The venue for the final would be a “tell-all about where we are at”.

He said NSW and Queensland were coming for Victoria. “They are looking to give us a black eye. They know we are vulnerable right now.”

HISTORY RIPPED APART: WALKER SAD AT DEMISE

JEFF Kennett said no to Ron Walker only once during the seven years they worked together turning Melbourne into an events capital.

The track record of the events organisation was beyond compare — the Grand Prix from Adelaide, the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

But after a visit to Spain, Mr Walker had decided the MCG could also be the place to hold a genuine bullfight — with a famous matador and, presumably, the death of a bull as a climax. There would be pre-sales of 80,000 tickets, he told the then premier.

Ron Walker says the legacy of the Victorian Major Events Company is being squandered. Picture: David Caird

Mr Kennett only took a few seconds to give his answer: No. The animal liberation movement would tear the joint down, he explained.

The premier, who was fighting to get the state’s finances back in shape, knew the revenue from such an event would have been enormous, but drew the line.

While Mr Walker was unsuccessful in getting a bullfight to the ’G, the anecdote provides a neat illustration about the success of the now dismembered Victorian Major Events Company.

Its operating model was simple. Mr Walker and other influential business identities were given enormous autonomy to identify and target major events. Once close to being landed, they would then ask the government of the day to formally sign the event.

Mr Walker’s concerns are simple, and go back to something his father used to say to him — “Son, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

“Sadly, the new entity is trying to reinvent an already successful events company,” Mr Walker says.

Earlier this year Premier Daniel Andrews absorbed the stand-alone company into Visit Victoria.

The origins of the model, which other states are now copying, go back to 1989, following Melbourne’s failure to win the 1996 Olympic Games.

The Victorian Major Events Company brought the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix to Melbourne.

Then premier Joan Kirner was fed up with the notion the state could no longer win — and decided to harness the energies of a few dedicated Melbourne citizens to think laterally to bring major events in a way that had not been done before.

Ms Kirner knew a lot was at stake, much more than the kudos of being photographed alongside sporting stars.

Despite coming from different political parties, Ms Kirner approached former lord mayor of Melbourne, Ron Walker. She told him she wanted him to become the founding chairman of a small, honorary board and the newly formed Melbourne Major Events Company (later renamed the Victorian Major Events Company).

The organisation would eventually bring billions to the state coffers.

It is impossible to think of Melbourne now without the success of the VMEC.

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