Perkins to renounce MA membership over Voice stance

Larry Perkins says he will renounce his membership of Motorsport Australia in protest against its public support of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.

Australians are set to head to the polls later this year for a referendum which will determine if a new body will be established which would recognise the Indigenous people as the first Australians and allow representations to parliament and the Executive on matters relating to Indigenous people.

Motorsport Australia has now joined a vast number of other sporting bodies, such as the AFL and Australian Rugby League Commission, in stating its support.

Perkins is “incensed” that the organisation has taken a partisan position.

“Motorsport Australia, under the President and Eugene Arocca, the CEO, have got no right to suggest to anyone what Motorsport Australia thinks,” he told Melbourne talkback radio station, 3AW.

“It’s a subscription-based outfit, there’s no authority for them to try to gild the lily about what they’re doing, and I am just so anti that.

“I don’t mind them supporting a referendum [but] you can’t take sides in this.

“It’s a divisive subject before we even start. It’s divided now by race, it would do nothing for the Indigenous population at all, and be honest, they’ve already got say over almost everything that happens in Australia, and they can be elected like anyone else and indeed they are elected like anyone else.”

The six-time Bathurst 1000 winner added, “I’ve tried to contact them [on Monday] to let them know that this is what I will do [renounce membership] in protest of them taking this political stance.

“Motorsport Australia, for 70 years, has been a proud, non-political organisation, and anything to do with politics is banned on race cars, et cetera.

“But they’ve turned that over… What’s the next thing they’re going to take sides with? This is why I’m so incensed about it, and I’ve been a member for over 50 years.”

Perkins surmised that there are financial motives for Motorsport Australia, and other bodies, at play.

“I tell you, money talks all the time, and Motorsport Australia, I know, also gets some dollars,” he declared.

“That would have been discussed somewhere along the line or it would be on people’s minds.

“But, this being part of a political mob when these outfits have got no right to involve themselves in politics… Motorsport Australia certainly never sought any opinions from any of the stakeholders and I spoke to many of them today.”

As reported last week by Speedcafe, Supercars is set to support the Voice, although it is unlikely to seek to directly influence how participants and fans vote.

No Supercars representative was listed in an advertisement commissioned by a multitude of sporting bodies, including Motorsport Australia, which has appeared in media outlets.

Its next stop on the calendar is the Betr Darwin Triple Crown, which so happens to be its Official Indigenous Event, at Hidden Valley on June 16-18.