Australian Karting Forum
Don't like the system? Change it!
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN DARWIN!?
I learnt yesterday that at the most recent AKA meeting the decision was made to contest the 2012 National Championships in Darwin. I don’t agree with this decision, I think it will make for a semi-farcical Nationals, and most importantly I think it displays just how inequitable the current decision making process is, for the vast majority of karters.
I hope to show with this article that running the National Championships in Darwin is a poor decision, and that such a decision has been reached not because the people that made the decision are stupid, or ignorant, or selfish (which are claims frequently made of them), but because the system within which they work is inherently inequitable.
So, let’s look at some data. Firstly, in 2008 there were 6495 licenced kart racers in Australia. Let’s see that broken down state by state:
VIC------1417------22%
TAS------256--------4%
NT----------73--------1%
NSW---2193------34%
SA--------344--------5%
WA--------747-----12%
QLD-----1465-----23%
So, basically 80% (that’s 4 out of 5) of Australia’s karters live on the Eastern Seaboard. Being the creator of KartBook, I just so happen to have access to the log that shows the location of all the visitors to this site. Granted, not ALL of Australia’s karters are registered on KartBook, but we have received visits from roughly 3000 unique computers, so the sample size is VERY good.
The image shows that we have a visitor base slightly more Melbourne-centric than the AKA licence figures suggest we should (easily explained by the fact that the site creators are all from Melbourne – and we invited all our mates to join!), but other than that we can see here a data plot that pretty accurately reflects the distribution of karters around the country. Unfortunately, when it comes to matters of voting at the national level, 80% of karters do not receive 80% of the vote. No, in fact the 80% of Australia’s karters in the 3 eastern mainland states receive a grand total of 42% of the vote. And the 1% of karters in the Northern Territory get 14% of the vote. Or, to put that another way, a karter in the Northern Territory has 30 times the say of a karter in New South Wales.
To compound matters further, if you belong to one of the big Metro clubs, like North Shore, Todd Road, Newcastle or Oakleigh, you get even LESS influence because your CLUB gets one vote in the State Council, no matter how many members it has. So in reality a Northern Territorian has closer to THREE HUNDRED times the influence of a North Shore Kart Club member.
You can’t blame people for wanting the best for themselves. It’s human nature, and we all do it. So I’m not telling you that Northern Territorians are evil, or that the entire NKC is corrupt. What I AM saying is that the system we are working within is inherently geared towards making unpopular decisions, because it is NOT based on a popular vote!
The system that creates these decisions is currently under review, and hopefully soon we will see something installed that works a lot better for a much greater percentage of Australian karters (and that’s a whole new can of worms I’ll crack open another day), but for now we are left with the fact that unless something is done, the 2012 Nationals will be contested in Darwin. Let’s look at that map again.
This time I’ve changed a lot of the icons to blue, to show you where 75% of you live, and one to black, to show you how far you’d have to go… To give you some food for thought, I’ve coloured Townsville – the location of this years Nationals – green. 41 Victorians were willing and able to contest the Nationals in Townsville (not counting the fact that many of those are a multiple entry by the same driver!). How many would go to the Northern Territory? Twenty or thirty?
I’m going to make a bold claim based on basic research and a gut feeling – I reckon if we ran this year’s National Championships at track like Geelong (or perhaps Dubbo, Newcastle, Pucka, or Ipswich) we would have seen 600 entries, perhaps more. Surely Australia’s “largest and best karting event” should actually BE Australia’s largest and best karting event!!
Darwin is a fantastic facility, I know (Brad Sager sings its praises to me almost daily). But the argument that each state should have a right to host the National Championships by “taking it in turns” is flawed. Let’s take that argument to the logical extreme, and imagine that EVERYONE that races karts lived in Sydney (6494 people), and there was one bloke who had his own club and track, over in Perth. Using the current system, those 6494 people would have one vote, and the bloke in Perth would get one vote. Using the current system, those 6494 people would get to host the Nationals one year, and that one bloke would the next. It’s obviously wrong! If you want people to “take it in turns”, then that one guy should get to host the Nationals once every 6494 years!
Another argument occasionally thrown up is the fact that the expenses incurred by people that live in remote areas is much greater, if we always have events near the major metro areas. This is a valid argument, so let’s take it to the logical extreme as well. Imagine if we created an entry fee that INCLUDED all travel and accomodation expenses for all competitors – so rather than paying $400 bucks, and then organising your own fuel, travel, accomodation etc, you’d pay $2000 bucks, and ALL competitors would be charged the same, whether they live next door or 3000km’s away. You couldn’t get any fairer than that, could you? It would also mean the total cost to run the event (and therefore the unified entry fee) would increase or decrease depending on where the event was held.
It wouldn’t take long to realise that the cost to run the event at Eastern Creek would be MUCH less than running it in Darwin. In fact, the total cost to run the event at Eastern Creek* would be $817,000. That same event, run at Hidden Valley, would cost $1,924,000, or well over double! Entry fee per competitor in NSW would be $1635, in NT it would be $3848.
I can’t believe, as we enter the greatest depression since the Great Depression, that spending an additional 1.1 million dollars of kart racers money on TRAVEL is a good idea!
Do we need to accommodate the needs of kart racers in regional areas of Australia? Yes, absolutely we do. But the solution should not be to penalise the great majority. Is this decision (among other unpopular changes) the result of incompetence at a national level? No. There are many smart, dedicated and experienced people running this sport, but the system they work within is inherently flawed, and is structured to produce unpopular decisions.
Let’s change it. Discussion welcomed!
*Cost calculated by assuming the following data:
500 competitors
20 cents per kilometre travelled
1 person’s accomodation
$50 per night accomodation, 7 nights
$400 entry fee
PS - I wholeheartedly apologise for being incapable of making a proper table with HTML, and giving you that filthy ASCII effort instead. We can't all be genyu... jeeni... geeniu... smart.
I learnt yesterday that at the most recent AKA meeting the decision was made to contest the 2012 National Championships in Darwin. I don’t agree with this decision, I think it will make for a semi-farcical Nationals, and most importantly I think it displays just how inequitable the current decision making process is, for the vast majority of karters.
I hope to show with this article that running the National Championships in Darwin is a poor decision, and that such a decision has been reached not because the people that made the decision are stupid, or ignorant, or selfish (which are claims frequently made of them), but because the system within which they work is inherently inequitable.
So, let’s look at some data. Firstly, in 2008 there were 6495 licenced kart racers in Australia. Let’s see that broken down state by state:
VIC------1417------22%
TAS------256--------4%
NT----------73--------1%
NSW---2193------34%
SA--------344--------5%
WA--------747-----12%
QLD-----1465-----23%
So, basically 80% (that’s 4 out of 5) of Australia’s karters live on the Eastern Seaboard. Being the creator of KartBook, I just so happen to have access to the log that shows the location of all the visitors to this site. Granted, not ALL of Australia’s karters are registered on KartBook, but we have received visits from roughly 3000 unique computers, so the sample size is VERY good.
The image shows that we have a visitor base slightly more Melbourne-centric than the AKA licence figures suggest we should (easily explained by the fact that the site creators are all from Melbourne – and we invited all our mates to join!), but other than that we can see here a data plot that pretty accurately reflects the distribution of karters around the country. Unfortunately, when it comes to matters of voting at the national level, 80% of karters do not receive 80% of the vote. No, in fact the 80% of Australia’s karters in the 3 eastern mainland states receive a grand total of 42% of the vote. And the 1% of karters in the Northern Territory get 14% of the vote. Or, to put that another way, a karter in the Northern Territory has 30 times the say of a karter in New South Wales.
To compound matters further, if you belong to one of the big Metro clubs, like North Shore, Todd Road, Newcastle or Oakleigh, you get even LESS influence because your CLUB gets one vote in the State Council, no matter how many members it has. So in reality a Northern Territorian has closer to THREE HUNDRED times the influence of a North Shore Kart Club member.
You can’t blame people for wanting the best for themselves. It’s human nature, and we all do it. So I’m not telling you that Northern Territorians are evil, or that the entire NKC is corrupt. What I AM saying is that the system we are working within is inherently geared towards making unpopular decisions, because it is NOT based on a popular vote!
The system that creates these decisions is currently under review, and hopefully soon we will see something installed that works a lot better for a much greater percentage of Australian karters (and that’s a whole new can of worms I’ll crack open another day), but for now we are left with the fact that unless something is done, the 2012 Nationals will be contested in Darwin. Let’s look at that map again.
This time I’ve changed a lot of the icons to blue, to show you where 75% of you live, and one to black, to show you how far you’d have to go… To give you some food for thought, I’ve coloured Townsville – the location of this years Nationals – green. 41 Victorians were willing and able to contest the Nationals in Townsville (not counting the fact that many of those are a multiple entry by the same driver!). How many would go to the Northern Territory? Twenty or thirty?
I’m going to make a bold claim based on basic research and a gut feeling – I reckon if we ran this year’s National Championships at track like Geelong (or perhaps Dubbo, Newcastle, Pucka, or Ipswich) we would have seen 600 entries, perhaps more. Surely Australia’s “largest and best karting event” should actually BE Australia’s largest and best karting event!!
Darwin is a fantastic facility, I know (Brad Sager sings its praises to me almost daily). But the argument that each state should have a right to host the National Championships by “taking it in turns” is flawed. Let’s take that argument to the logical extreme, and imagine that EVERYONE that races karts lived in Sydney (6494 people), and there was one bloke who had his own club and track, over in Perth. Using the current system, those 6494 people would have one vote, and the bloke in Perth would get one vote. Using the current system, those 6494 people would get to host the Nationals one year, and that one bloke would the next. It’s obviously wrong! If you want people to “take it in turns”, then that one guy should get to host the Nationals once every 6494 years!
Another argument occasionally thrown up is the fact that the expenses incurred by people that live in remote areas is much greater, if we always have events near the major metro areas. This is a valid argument, so let’s take it to the logical extreme as well. Imagine if we created an entry fee that INCLUDED all travel and accomodation expenses for all competitors – so rather than paying $400 bucks, and then organising your own fuel, travel, accomodation etc, you’d pay $2000 bucks, and ALL competitors would be charged the same, whether they live next door or 3000km’s away. You couldn’t get any fairer than that, could you? It would also mean the total cost to run the event (and therefore the unified entry fee) would increase or decrease depending on where the event was held.
It wouldn’t take long to realise that the cost to run the event at Eastern Creek would be MUCH less than running it in Darwin. In fact, the total cost to run the event at Eastern Creek* would be $817,000. That same event, run at Hidden Valley, would cost $1,924,000, or well over double! Entry fee per competitor in NSW would be $1635, in NT it would be $3848.
I can’t believe, as we enter the greatest depression since the Great Depression, that spending an additional 1.1 million dollars of kart racers money on TRAVEL is a good idea!
Do we need to accommodate the needs of kart racers in regional areas of Australia? Yes, absolutely we do. But the solution should not be to penalise the great majority. Is this decision (among other unpopular changes) the result of incompetence at a national level? No. There are many smart, dedicated and experienced people running this sport, but the system they work within is inherently flawed, and is structured to produce unpopular decisions.
Let’s change it. Discussion welcomed!
*Cost calculated by assuming the following data:
500 competitors
20 cents per kilometre travelled
1 person’s accomodation
$50 per night accomodation, 7 nights
$400 entry fee
PS - I wholeheartedly apologise for being incapable of making a proper table with HTML, and giving you that filthy ASCII effort instead. We can't all be genyu... jeeni... geeniu... smart.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Robert Pittam on May 2, 2009 at 0:08 -
My son and I have traveled to most tracks in Australia over the last 10 years. We traveled to Darwin in 2008 for the first time and I fully agree with Ash, it was one of the best state titles we have contested. Even after it cost us a 6 month holiday ( stewards decison). We will be going back again this year because they put on a great show.
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Comment by liam sager on April 14, 2009 at 21:51 -
DARWIN!!! is defineately the best track in the whole of australia.. Everyone says NT states isnt that just for gumbies?? but no it is not.. in the last two years i have raced there and both years have been the best race meeting i have been too with some of the most talented drivers in australian such as garry jacobson matt hart .. no i did not win. but i had fun and that is what this sport is about.. If eveyone just gave darwin a chance and went you would know what fun at go karts really is.!!
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Comment by Rod Lansdowne on April 13, 2009 at 15:47 -
Col,
Being aware of your objection to the voting system, and having the Nationals at great distances from the majority, do you believe that the quality of racing was still there compared to the bigger events held south? I'm not trying to start and argument just getting an opinion on what you observed and what you have seen previously. This being my first, found it a little daunting at first, but what a lot of fun. Sorry I didn't introduce myself, was pressing wets off rims when you walked past Sunday morning.
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Comment by Hayley Littlely on April 11, 2009 at 17:04 -
I don't think it should matter the location. You have to give EVERYONE a chance to race, and holiding it in every state gives every one has that chance. But for only 73( + top end WA ppl) karts its does seem like a bit of waste.
As long as it doesn't turn into an AFL debate where it always has to be in Victoria cause thats where it started/more teams are. I dont care. Pluuus I'm still a P-plate and far from national material so it doesn't matter. ;)
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Comment by Col Fink (old account) on April 3, 2009 at 23:04 -
Just once a year mate... that's why it's so important :-)
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Comment by Callan Sayers on April 3, 2009 at 21:53 -
Soz for noob question....but
how often do they hold national title meetings?
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Comment by Sharon Harper (Kart Mum) on April 3, 2009 at 10:04 -
We're leaving tonight for Townsville - gunna be a long drive but who cares? Two weeks away from work, bitta karting thrown in, family, friends and I'm sure what's going to be a lovely setting - what more could anyone ask for?
See ya all at the Nats!
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Comment by Col Fink (old account) on April 2, 2009 at 23:12
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Hi Mark,
I'll definitely be catching up with you at the nats. I'm the bloke that looks suspiciously like that bloke in the little picture on the left... albeit slightly less surprised, most of the time.
I am, as stated on the front page now, quite surprised by the responses. Usually I'm pretty good at having my finger on the pulse I reckon, but I seem to have missed pretty substantially. Which is GREAT! I'm glad people are happy with the decision, because that IS the decision.
I DO still believe, however, that the voting system sucks. I'm also not a believer that if many other voting systems suck, ours should too!! The technology is now available to canvass karters opinions on many things, and I encourage the NKC (or the governing body in future) to do exactly that. I'll help, and for free.
Mark, you'll soon learn that I have way too many ideas in my head, and now that KartBook is up and running the forum in which to put these ideas. KartBook is here so we can ALL voice our opinions, and receive the response. I will do so often, and encourage others to do the same. I'd like someone (and I'm subtlely nominating you) to explain to us, in practical terms (and in normal English) what the new governance system will actually achieve, for the AVERAGE karter (who does not attend club meetings... because let's face it, they don't).
Thanks. See ya next week. :-)
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Comment by Mark Hogan on April 2, 2009 at 20:53 -
Looks like your a bit surprised at the comments so far Col :) I made my personal thoughts known in the political forum prior to this blog starting. I suppose that at this stage the comments here represent a nano percentage of 1% of karters but it is interesting.
Yes I will say personally that there are inequities of the current voting system but that is not just reflected in the AKA, it is the same in almost every national sporting body, as well as local, state and federal politics. (My view only and does not necessarily reflect any other person's view, club or state.)
Hey, at the Nationals come up and say g'day. Be nice to me though :) I'm one of the poor buggers who will be a scrutineer.
Mark
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Comment by Rod Lansdowne on April 2, 2009 at 18:52
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Good on you Pete, with people like you from bigger centres is what keeps driving our sport (and economy). The point I was making was that by keeping the big events to big cities only alienate those who have no choice but to travel. Like Pete and Sharon, we use these weekends or weeks as escapes all beit centred on one thing, but we do get out and enjoy other events as a family while we are away.
By sharing the bigger events around (and upsetting those in big centres), other areas hold these events with pride and much esteem along with the effort to run these events, and most times far better than the bigger areas. Why??
Because they need to entice people to travel the distance to attend, if they don't get the numbers then they run at a loss. It also allows the local members who do not get a chance to travel because of monetary or work/school commitments to actively participate in a large national event. Who knows, the next Ayrton Senna may just be around the corner waiting for one of these events to turn up in their backyard. (definately not me)
So come on, get out your racing calendars, work out what you can attend and travel to the big ones. In the end we all benefit for the experience
© 2012 Created by Col Fink.
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