There are three items of correspondence up on the inquiry website
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary...onal_Documents
David Vaux is destroying de Clyne
8. I have a very clear recollection of our telephone conversation. At the time I was
visiting my daughter on the Sunshine Coast and I had to excuse myself from a small
gathering to take the call from Mr Clyne. I also took some notes of key points. The
following is a summary of my telephone conversation with Mr Clyne and
subsequent events :
a) Mr Clyne called at 2.22pm on Sunday 20 August 2017 and said to me that the
process of determining an Australian team to drop from the Super Rugby
Competition had been very, very difficult for him, and that he was personally
very hurt by media commentary and comments by Andrew Forest about his
role and the ARU’s approach. He had been warned not to do business with Mr
Forest and told not to trust him. However, notwithstanding these feelings, he
had been instructed by his board to make a “Without Prejudice” proposal. He
said that the ARU would retain the Western Force in the Super Rugby
Competition on the following conditions :
(i) Mr Forest would underwrite the Western Force’s financial position for
the remaining 3 years of the Broadcasting Agreements, and an
additional 5 years which would arise from the next cycle of Broadcasting
Agreements;
(ii) The Western Force would receive equal funding from the ARU to the
other 4 Australian Super Rugby teams;
(iii) To compensate the ARU for having to continue to provide an ongoing
$6m contribution to the Western Force, Mr Forest would provide
funding to the ARU for grass roots rugby for $6m a year over the 3 + 5
year period, $48m in total;
(iv) Mr Forest would provide SANZAR compensation for the additional costs
of going from 15 to 16 teams, namely $20m; and
(v) If this proposal was agreed to, then Mr Clyne and the rest of the ARU
board would resign and a new board would appoint the next CEO.
I asked Mr Clyne to clarify why he felt the 8 year period was appropriate. He said
that if the Western Force were to be retained, then it would naturally be a
consequence that they would be retained for the next broadcasting cycle as well. I
queried with Mr Clyne, the commerciality of including the additional 5 years, as it
was highly likely that the structure and funding of the Super Rugby Competition
would be materially different, hence, due to this uncertainty, it was an
unreasonable demand. He was however adamant about the 8 year period.
I informed Mr Clyne that I would present his proposal to representatives of Mr
Forest and also to the RWA Chairman, Mr Tony Howarth. Our call concluded at
2.49pm.
I returned to my gathering and informed them that I needed to be excused to
make some further calls, as I had just been speaking to Mr Clyne, and I wanted to
pass onto my West Australian colleagues details of a proposal he had made. I
expressed hope that a settlement might be possible.
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Originally Posted by UAUdiver1959
