New questions over stadium deal
The West Australian
EXCLUSIVE Gareth Parker State Political Editor The West Australian
April 4, 2014, 2:51 am
Sports Minister Terry Waldron instructed VenuesWest not to try and negotiate a better deal with Nick Tana’s Allia Venue Management after the agency and the Department of Sport and Recreation expressed concerns that taxpayers’ interests were not being adequately protected.
The Barnett Government yesterday failed to fully explain why it included a termination clause in a heads of agreement deal that allowed Allia to walk away from its management contract of nib Stadium 10 years early, and also be paid out $8 million by taxpayers, as revealed by The West Australian.
Sports Minister Terry Waldron yesterday failed to address a query from Labor MLA Rita Saffioti about why it would agree to such a clause.
“We considered Allia to be a good operator,” Mr Waldron told Parliament.
Asked by The West Australian why the Government would include such a clause in the Allia deal, Mr Waldron said it was because “necessary to get the agreement of all parties so that we could progress the issue” of the $95 million stadium redevelopment.
Allia had an existing deal to manage the stadium with the Town of Vincent, which owned Perth Oval, but the State Government had announced a redevelopment and needed to renegotiate the stadium’s governance arrangements.
With negotiations over the heads of agreement on-going in April 2011, VenuesWest chief executive David Etherington revealed in an email, obtained by Labor under Freedom of Information, that Mr Waldron had instructed him and VenuesWest chairman Graham Partridge not to try and get a better deal for the State.
“(A)t our meeting with the Minister yesterday, Graham Partridge and I were advised by the Minister that the decision had been made to continue with (Allia’s management) of nib Stadium for the foreseeable future,” Mr Etherington wrote. “Any consideration of paying (Allia) out would not be for many years, if it even eventuated before their 13-14 years (contract duration) are up.
“(Mr Waldron) also advised us that the decision had been made to in essence go with a very similar HoA to the one that is currently in place, without any complicated negotiations about improving the State’s position etc. Graham and I … advised that these two decisions obviously meant that the State wouldn’t see as much net benefit directly from the redevelopment because the operational and management costs … would be considerably higher than they otherwise might have been. The minister advised that the decision had been made to just get on with it and not unduly delay things.”
Ms Saffitoi said taxpayers had been taken for a ride.
“How on earth did the Premier and the Minister agree to such a silly and reckless deal that exposes WA taxpayers to such financial risk,” she said.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/2...-stadium-deal/