Page 479 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 May 1992
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It was around this time that the motor mechanic business came to be formed on the premises. I would like to advise Mr Cornwell and the Assembly that yesterday I intervened in that matter. I wrote to the chair of Ainslie Village and requested that they stay their termination of the sublease for some three months, both for the motor mechanic business and for Megalo arts. I have been advised by the chair of Ainslie Village, Mr Enright, that they will accede to that request. They do not have to. As Mr Cornwell correctly stated, they do have the lease for the village. It is a legal lease. The relationship with both Megalo and CWC is as sublessees, and I have no more power to intervene in that than I would in the relationship between Lend Lease and a shopping centre tenant. But I did ask that they stay their hand, and they have agreed to do so; so that is some progress.
It was in the late 1980s that controversy began to erupt around Ainslie Village, and we had conflict between staff and residents and the then company running the village, which was resident controlled. I think that is the significant difference between now and then. At that time Ainslie Village was resident controlled and we had conflict between some residents, some other residents, the staff and the then company.
The situation was fairly abysmal and unworkable, and there was a request for action from government. As a result, a new management structure was created and, in April 1990, responsibility was transferred to this new company, Ainslie Village Ltd. Coincidentally, the transfer occurred at the time of the Alliance Government, although the process was well in train during the period of the Labor Government. So, both Minister Grassby and Minister Collaery had an oversighting role in setting that up. After the new company had been set up, Mr Collaery indicated that he wanted a management review some 12 months into the process. When I came into government that was under way.
At the time there were a lot of accusations and counter-accusations flowing into my office. A large number of letters were coming from various residents making accusations, sometimes contrary accusations. As Mr Cornwell said, we should not be here trying to distinguish gossip from truth or substantial matter from trivial matter. One matter which did cause me quite some delay in setting the terms of reference was that the original terms of reference seemed to focus on what seemed to me to be a legal point - whether or not Mr Enright, who was chair of the company, chair of the board of directors, could be appointed to a full-time executive position within the company. There were allegations that he could not and there were requests for the review to look at that. It always seemed to me to be purely a legal question whether the company allowed that. Many of us would be familiar with companies - - -
Mr De Domenico: It is very unusual for that to happen, though, Terry, you must admit.
MR CONNOLLY: I would say not. It is very common for a company to have an executive director. It is almost the standard practice with chairs. I did not see any problem with that. It was legal and I decided that that was not an appropriate matter to have within the terms of reference for a consultant; that that was a matter that we could get legal advice on. It was either legal or it was not, and I was advised that there was no illegality in that.
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