Seriously???
You continue to ignore the context of the gross over-representation of a small group of faceless debenture holders on the HBG Board - where they are able to install a permament voting block of FIVE directors with only two popularly elected Directors representing the members!
The debenture holders are NOT the sole OR majority owners of HBG - but STILL control 71.4% of Board appointments!
The HBG ownership includes the 17 active debenture holders - and 27,000 voting members of the registered club under the Registered Clubs Act 1976...
Meaning that on a per capita basis the current debenture holders represent 0.0006% of the total ownership - but have a 71.4% controlling stake in the Board!
As
@BZN likes to repeat -
surely any fair-minded, unbiassed individual can see that this archaic governance model where 17 debenture holders (20 when at full capacity) - have exactly 2.5X the representation on the Board compared to the 27,000 financial members with just 2 is prone to abuse and is entirely unrepresentative of the broader
ownership!
All Directors are still bound by the HBG constitution and their Directorial fiduciary duties under ASIC regulations plus the Registered Clubs Act - and that is where Liquor & Gaming NSW will focus any investigations.
Given there are currently public
allegations that:
1) The Board acted improperly in suspending the two elected Directors on trumped up & petty charges - due to an undisclosed private agenda
2) The Board did not mandatorily report/investigate an inappropriate workplace incident between a continuing Board member & a club staffer at Ashfield (as per Rick Wayde on Youtube)
3) The Board unanimously voted for a governance review into their subsidiary asset WT (following a petition) - but one Director did not avail herself to the review and has been obstructive to implementation of the recommendations (while making public statements to the contrary)
4) The Chair has since sent threatening emails to the new WT CEO to ensure that the interim Board remains in limbo while the HBG Board continue to undermine the independent skills-based selection process that they publically endorsed).
5) The Board failed in its fiduciary duty when it cancelled the recruitment contract for the Independent WT Directors due to internal politics. With a second tender process leading to re-appointment of the same company who won BOTH contracts on merit!
Note: This duplication not only further delayed the implementation of the independent WT Board - but the huge financial cost of two contracts with the recruitment company and a second tender comes from the members funds (NOT the debenture holders)!
6) Dennis Burgess is an agitator for a Magpies revival - and is unfit as a Director
FACT: The new Chair reinstated Dennis Burgess as the WSDRLFC rep on the WT Board against the review recommendations when the debenture rep Directors executed a coup against Andreacchio!!
While I am happy to stress that points 1-6 above are all just "allegations" - Liquor and Gaming NSW have plenty to sink their teeth into.... and the petition will only help to bring it to their attention!
To those sitting on the fence - ask yourself this:
If any of the above allegations that besmirched them (published in SMH and podcast via Youtube) were GENUINELY untruthful & defamatory to the "Gang of 4"- why haven't Denny and Julie et al -
OR HBG as a legal entity engaged a legal team to have the articles/podcast taken down under a concerns notice??
Hint:
truth & public interest are defence in a defamation suit!
If not for the initial petition (& I was a doubter) = and subsequent independent governance review - the Axis of Mediocrity aka Hagipantelis/Pascoe would still be at Concord and our 2025 squad would still have fricking Nofa on $500K....
Get that into your thick skulls!!
