Just sent the response back to the RA
Dear Sir or Madam,
Thank you for your 'response.'
I have read that 'documentation' and it is the biggest load of horse manure that has come out of the ARU since the start of the fiasco led by your comrades Rob Clarke, Anthony French, Bill Pulver and Cameron Clyne. Four of the most damaging people to ruin the game in Australia. Mr Pulver doesn't know his organisation's own financials and the definition of loans, insolvency and debt yet he is the Chief Executive Officer. Stop blaming other sports in a so called competitive market. You have made it favourable to other sports and lower tier by being incompetent. Like the mob destroying Soccer in Australia you are killing the game from within.
That press release that come out from your destructive organisation days after the Senate Inquiry doesn't address any of the findings and recommendations from the Committee. It may as well been written by a lawyer or a child. You don't need a lawyer. Get rid of the Chairman, stop wasting money on the Rebels, cut the junkets to London, throw out the consultants, don't waste money on deluded re-branding and scrap the Sydney University led nominations committee. You have saved yourself millions right away that can go to the grass roots. Having read the ASIC financial reports that were submitted to the Senate Inquiry which I will get in to more detail later on, the little money spent on grass roots Rugby in Western Australia and the ACT is disgraceful. These two areas which you have a heavy bias against have Super Rugby and NRC sides with locally developed players in them.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary...onal_Documents
The Brumbies have had to levy clubs which has effected their relationships with a key stakeholder which has been covered by your former Chairman Peter McGrath in his piece here
https://griffinlegal.com.au/2017/01/...ies-into-2017/
You put the Brumbies and Western Force in jeopardy to maintain the bottomless pit that is the Melbourne Rebels and to keep alive John O'Neill's and Cameron Clyne's childhood dream of having a team in Melbourne. Spare me with the delusion that you have to have a team in the second biggest market in Australia. They have done nothing to justify a team in 2005 and they still have not justified having a team now. You have provided loans after loans to this team that has no business plan, no major sponsor, didn't have a CEO for well over a year, the Victorian Government themselves can't provide a straight story over what funds they have wasted on the Rebels, wasted money on services to related parties rather than spending it on developing and promoting the team, have offered cut price tickets/memberships and who haven't explained how they have managed to pay to bring over the Western Force coaching staff and players (many of them are now internationals that justify pay increases from their current contracts). Don't tell me that it is confidential as the Victorian tax payer is entitled to know how much their state Government is wasting on a deluded bottomless money pit that has killed the game in Australia.
The details that the ARU wrote about not hearing a proper proposal from the Western Force by August 2 is a complete and utter fabrication which has been proven to be false by the paper trail submitted to the Senate Inquiry by Rugby WA. The Own the Force campaign was stalled by your organisation and you know it. You also ignored Andrew Forrest's proposal and haven't told a straight story about the meeting in Adelaide. You couldn't ever bother to fly to Perth to meet his team. While I am on the topic of Rugby in WA you have suggested that I keep up to date by going on to their website. That's going to be very difficult to organise now after you have sacked the majority of their staff and forced them in to voluntary administration. Yet you were quiet happy at selling off non-gazetted tests to Melbourne without a tender process and not tell a straight story about whether you could cut the Rebels. Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle, Canberra and so forth can longer bid for these matches.
Your destructive Chairman couldn't tell a straight story to Senator Reynolds when questioned about the board meeting on August 18th 2016 which was held eight days before the execution of the so called Alliance Agreement which was as biased as the Anthony French led pile of nonsense to recommend the cutting from five teams down to four. You have kept five teams one of them is based in Japan and you have relocated the Force to Melbourne. The report was heavily biased against WA and the ACT. I don't know where the Brumbies coming close to Insolvency story came from. It also failed to mention the millions that have gone down the hole in Melbourne that should have been spent on the game, grassroots and keeping players in Australia. This pile of rubbish from this board meeting was signed off by your so called Chairman in December 2016 yet you took the board findings to a Sanzaar executive committee meeting. This is on top of moving forward on how to decided upon which team to cut.
You have said that you only took on board projections for the future when deciding on what team to cut. It was clearly going to be the Force and if you couldn't cut them it would be the Brumbies your most successful side. Despite the millions wasted on the Rebels you were never going to cut your comrade's childhood dream. You go on about future projections yet the Rebels were sold for a dollar, have no sustainable business plan, the VRU has little money, no major sponsor and the mates club have been reappointed to the board. Nothing has changed. I wouldn't put it past Paddy Power to table bets on the next time the Rebels are due for a bailout.
Now to the millions you have wasted on the Rebels and by the ARU. I have read the reports and it is disgusting what has been wasted on that organisation. Here are some key ones I have pulled out:
- Page 98, grant funding to the Rebels of $9,021,000 includes the write off of loans provided during the reporting period of $4,268,000. Fully provided loans totalling $8,750,000 from prior reporting periods were forgiven and cleared from the balance sheet
- Page 138 features $2.6 million to the Rebels as part of the external sale agreement
- Page 262 a $5.5 million loan to the Rebels in 2013
- Page 322 in the December 2014 in the Rebels report 15.9 million was paid to suppliers and employees. The Shareholders equity makes for interesting reading in their reports
- Page 336 note 17 is about the services to related parties, loan payable of $8.75 million along with $5.5 million from 2013 and the ARU. I am shocked at the figures for goods and services provided to the ARU.
These figures need an explanation to the stakeholders of the game in Australia and to World Rugby itself as it has damaged the game's reputation.
Rugby 'Australia' is about as credible as OneTel and James Hardie do yourself a favour and resign.
The Wallabies coach Michael Cheika's behaviour mirrors the organisation he works for. His reaction to Michael Lynagh was appalling. On the topic of appalling so appalled was Mr Lynagh about the ARU led destruction of the game in Australia and the Western Force he is now working for Andrew Forrest in finding a competition for the Force to play in. Something that you have failed to do.
Regards
