Page 4938 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
job to sort out the matter. Had it been sorted out earlier - as would have been the case, I am sure, if the trust had stayed in place - then this issue would not have been left for us to deal with. Of course, we will deal with it in due course.
I would just like to draw Mr Stefaniak's attention to the details of the Health Promotion Fund trust account given on page 270 of Budget Paper No. 5. The Health Promotion Fund, of course, does not return $1.5m a year; it is more of the order of $900,000. I think the issues that I have raised in relation to the Health Promotion Fund in my previous speech on the matter have provided all the answers that Mr Stefaniak would need.
MR COLLAERY (8.45): I rise merely to put on the record that the Rugby League had until 31 December 1990 to pay the $1m. We did not know until the day, in effect, that they defaulted. In the period after that, through until May when the Government fell, we had five months to resolve it. This Government has had from June to the end of November. So, in effect, it has had an equivalent time, and it has not come up with a solution. So, I think it ill behoves Mr Berry to say that we should have resolved it.
The fact of the matter is that, when we were in government, there was a playing season. As every person in the Canberra city knows, for us to have pulled the pin or forced that issue at that time during the negotiating phase, during the playing season, would have required a most extraordinary, hard-headed and difficult decision. That decision to disrupt the Raiders, as they fought for the premiership, was an issue that the Government had to consider.
But, more importantly, what the Government had to consider was the fact that the rugby league club was in very difficult financial circumstances; and, if the New South Wales Rugby League sent the $1m down to its bank account, the question was: Would it go in priority of receivership? So, let us get down to tintacks on this issue. Mr Berry is on loose ground in that I have, of course, retained copies of those papers.
I can assure the house that one of the considerations, as shown in the paperwork I have, was, of course, the financial situation of the Canberra District Rugby League Football Club Ltd, and the fact that its assets might be taken in a liquidation or other receiver application. The New South Wales Rugby League in Phillip Street was well aware of that, and that was the reason why, when I was in Adelaide with the member for Canberra, Ros Kelly, I made the arrangement to have the $1m sent to the trust fund of the Sports Commission, in effect, to keep it away from any potential receiver.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .