$1.2 million paid to JON that is an incease of $500.000
ARU's top secret was too sensitive
EVERY now and then the Australian Rugby Union comes up with an idea that is so breathtakingly visionary, so utterly inspiring that all you can do is shake your head and say to yourself: "You've really gotta hand it to these guys".
One such idea surfaced at last week's annual general meeting. Actually, it had been percolating along for about a month or two beforehand, but it wasn't until the AGM that it actually came gushing forth like a frothy, overflowing cappuccino.
What was this wonderful idea, I hear you asking, your question tugging like a small child on a trouser leg. Well, if you behave, I'll tell you.
The idea was that it was not going to publicly reveal what it pays its chief executive John O'Neill and the other members of the board and not publish these amounts in its annual report like it always has. BUT, it would let the inner circle of AGM delegates in on the secret.
Now, be honest, you're sitting there shaking your head, aren't you? You're saying to yourself, "How breathtakingly visionary! How utterly inspiring!"
And how bloody sensible too. As the events of the past week in Pakistan have dramatically shown, some information is just too important, too sensitive to share. Who knows what damage could be done if it fell into the wrong hands. The ARU knows that. It knows that some operations, by their very nature, need to be clandestine. And, most important of all, it knows the Australian rugby public doesn't want to be bothered with detail. As long as the Wallabies get the All Blacks, dead or alive, that's all that matters.
Do the volunteers manning the sausage sizzle at junior sign-on days really need to be burdened with how much JON takes home each month? Of course not. They have enough on their plate. Well, strictly speaking, they don't have as much on their plate as they would like. Not so many kids queueing up for sausages this year, for some reason.
And speaking of the juniors, what about the selfish audacity of those NSW officials who are opposing the ARU plan to scrap the traditional system of sending three teams, Sydney Juniors, NSW Schools and Country to the national Under-16 carnival! Why have three teams ... well, apart from the fact that just about every NSW Wallaby ever has come through one of them ... when you can make do with two?
Think, too, of how dangerously distracting it could be to provide Waratahs fans with the details of ARU chairman Peter McGrath's remuneration. Their team is in trouble and they need to stay focused on what's important, like worrying about whether Phil Waugh will have to be let go because NSW can't fit him into their scaled-down salary cap.
And what reason is there for mums in Canberra and Perth and Melbourne to get uppity about what the ARU is paying its directors? Rugby mums have an important role to play in the game - in this case to demurely iron the training jersies and pack their sons off to Sydney or Brisbane after the ARU closes down the Brumbies, Force and Rebels academies and consolidates them all into two cost-cutting centres.
The ARU knows that there is such a thing as too much information and that letting people in on secrets way above their clearance level ultimately only distresses and confuses them. Some people need to be protected from themselves.
Truth be told, it didn't even want to divulge this vital information to the delegates and only did so because a few troublemakers threatened to go public if they didn't. Of course, the ARU warned them that once the genie was out of the bottle, there would be no way of getting it back in again. Inevitably, some bastard would surely leak.
And, you guessed it, there it was in the paper the very next day ... $1.2 million paid to JON. Hell, it even had the breakdown of how much was base salary, how much short-term incentives, how much long-term incentives. His effectiveness as an undercover agent was just shot. How could he carry out his behind-the-scenes role of telling people they've got to cut back and scale down important areas of the game when the first thing they come back at him with is: So why has your salary gone up by $500,000 over the past year?
Needless to say, Homeland Security has been brought in to investigate the leak and the ARU has provided it with the names of suspect troublemakers but, really, the damage has been done.
A sacred oath has been violated. Delegates were sworn to secrecy but someone, maybe several someones, chose to betray the organisation.
The ARU has been open and accountable and what good has it done? Never again!
Delegates aren't to be trusted. From now on, business must be conducted entirely on a need-to-know basis.
And you know what? You don't need to know anything!
So bugger off!
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226051414705
