Modern slavery contributes to Supercars championship profits

Written by: Ned K. on 30 November 2025

 

(Source: www.autoracing1.com)

The last weekend of November has seen the Grand Final of the Repco Supercars Championship held in the Adelaide Street Circuit and Victoria Park which in a previous life was a horse racing track.

The Supercars Championship event in Adelaide was the consolation prize when the Grand Prix moved to Melbourne several years ago.
The Supercars event in Adelaide is a popular event among local car racing enthusiasts. It also attracts many people from interstate and overseas, providing a boost to the Adelaide accommodation and hospitality industry.

This entertainment event, like Liv Golf and the AFL Gather Round with all 18 teams in Adelaide in the same week, have become important pillars for the fragile SA economy as far as the SA Government is concerned. 

The SA Premier is always emphasizing how important these events are for local business and for providing jobs for South Australians.

However, like every industry under capitalism, scratch the surface of the Supercars Grand Final and the shine disappears pretty quickly.

An "army" of "hidden" event workers makes the whole show possible. These workers include construction workers, hospitality workers, security workers, cleaners and more. 

The Supercars Championship of 13 car races per year including the Grand Final in Adelaide is operated by Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises Ltd (RACE).

For the year ending 31 December, 2023, it increased profits by 16.2%. The chairperson, Barclay Nettleford, forecast "a strong outlook" for future Supercars Championships.

People who pay good money to this and other events no doubt assume that the workers making the event possible are at least paid the legal Award minimum rates.

This is often not the case. Below Award rates of pay and other dodgy arrangements enter in to the realm of what has become known as Modern Slavery.

The victims of Modern Slavery are usually new migrant workers on various forms of work visas.

RACE has several contract companies providing services at the Sportscar events, including the Grand Final event in Adelaide. The principal contract companies are often multinational or large national companies such as Pinnacle and Longreach Venue and Event Services.

Longreach won a contract for providing cleaning and waste removal services at the Adelaide event. However, it contracted out the cleaning services to a small Adelaide-based cleaning contractor who provided the cleaners to perform the work. 

Most of the cleaners were new migrant workers and to get the job they had to sign an "Agreement" with a below Award minimum flat rate of pay, no superannuation and no insurance coverage in the event of injury.

Some cleaners reject these "Agreements" as a sham contract arrangement and so don't get the job, but there are always those desperate for an income for a few days' work who agree to sign under the illegal terms offered by the immediate employer.

This is just one example of the wage swindle and super exploitation that occurs behind the limelight of the "event economy" which the SA Government and no doubt other governments have come to rely upon.

The irony of the Modern Slavery situations is that the state government/s actually are ripped off in the process as well, as the companies like Longreach and its smaller partner in crime local cleaning contractor pay less Payroll Tax to the government!

 

 

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