SafeWork SA is poised to probe the notorious pre-season camp that caused fractures within the Adelaide Crows
South Australia’s workplace regulator is poised to investigate the Adelaide Crows’ notorious 2018 Gold Coast pre-season camp.
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Workplace regulator SafeWork SA is poised to launch an investigation into the Adelaide Football Club’s infamous 2018 pre-season training camp, raising the potential for prosecutions, a fine and safety order.
An official investigation would focus on “safe systems of work” at the Gold Coast camp, about which Premier Steven Marshall expressed “genuine concerns” following reports of players being put through traumatic activities aimed at building resilience.
SafeWork SA confimed it has “begun preliminary inquiries” into the camp.
The SA workplace health and safety regulator’s role does not extend to Queensland but its jurisdiction may extend to work activities conducted there by the Adelaide-based AFL club.
Responding to reports about Crows players at the camp being told to hurl abuse at a teammate about a childhood trauma, Mr Marshall on July 6 said “everybody who goes to any work environment should be safe from bullying or intimidation” and vowed to check whether the Crows were subject to SafeWork SA legislation.
The camp is widely believed to have played a key role in triggering the club’s collapse from 2017 grand finalists to their current dire position – winless on the foot of the AFL ladder.
Asked on Tuesday about the status of any inquiry by SafeWork SA into the Crows, a spokeswoman for the regulator responded with a written statement.
“No notifications or complaints against the Adelaide Football Club in relation to their pre-season camp in 2018 have been received by SafeWork SA. SafeWork SA is looking into the matter and no further information can be shared at this stage,” the statement says.
“SafeWork SA does not have jurisdiction over Queensland businesses, however, where South Australian businesses operate interstate, we may have jurisdiction over activities relating to safe systems of work.”
According to SafeWork SA’s website, the regulator’s compliance and enforcement activities, in general, may lead to prosecutions being filed in the SA Employment Tribunal and the Magistrates Court, or an enforceable undertaking or expiation notice being issued.
The independent regulator is a business unit within the Treasury and Finance Department and, as such, is accountable to – but not directed by – Treasurer Rob Lucas.
In response to questions from Greens MLC Tammy Franks, Mr Lucas told parliament on Tuesday the government would rely on the regulator’s independent assessments to ensure “the requirements of work health and safety legislation for all employees in South Australia are properly implemented”.
An Adelaide Football Club spokesman declined to comment. The winless Crows are at the bottom of the AFL ladder with a 0-7 start to the season, including a loss to St Kilda at Adelaide Oval on Monday night.
News Corp last week revealed serious doubts had been raised over the independence of the AFL probe into the camp, which cleared the club of wrongdoing, despite revelations of disturbing mental, physical and cultural abuse.
It was revealed seven of the nine Crows’ directors were appointed by the AFL and that the league had sole voting rights of all matters at annual general meetings other than the election of the two remaining board members.
Former Crows coach Don Pyke has said Crows chiefs need to address the notorious four-day camp “once and for all”, arguing the club needed to explain the “context” around some of the activities.
“It’s probably disappointing it’s continuing to be … discussed. I mean clearly, the club’s viewpoint is that they want to move on,” Mr Pyke told ABC radio, following the fresh News Corp investigation into the saga.
“I think it’s probably a conversation that’s due with the club about, well, how they want to address this once and for all.”
Top Adelaide lawyer Greg Griffin has said the AFL made a “serious error” in claiming its investigation into the Crows’ camp was independent, saying it controlled the board and, therefore, the club.
Under the terms of the Crows’ constitution – revised six years ago – the AFL took effective control of the Adelaide board and became the club’s ultimate authority.
The AFL integrity unit in 2018 cleared the Crows of any wrongdoing in the “cult-like” team-building camp and concluded that there had been “no breach of industry rules”.