Company behind nightclub Pink Flamingo Gold Coast in liquidation over $2 million tax debt
A company behind a Gold Coast cabaret club hailed as Australia’s answer to Moulin Rouge is in liquidation after being unable to pay millions in debt. Read what it means for the risque venue
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A company behind the Gold Coast cabaret club hailed as Australia’s answer to Moulin Rouge is in liquidation after being unable to pay millions of dollars in debt.
Project 88 TPF, which operated The Pink Flamingo, was placed into voluntary liquidation on Monday.
Despite the liquidation, the club was still selling tickets for weekend shows after a new company was created by the wife of one of the directors.
Project 88 is directed by Pink Flamingo founders Sue Porrett and Tony Rigas, with a registered place of business at the cabaret’s venue at 88 Surf Pde Broadbeach.
The company found itself in a flap last year when it was ordered to pay $30,000 to two former staff in an unfair dismissal case.
ASIC records show a new company, KSAJ Group, was created on July 11 with Louise Huxham – partner of Mr Rigas and a senior manager of the club – its sole director.
According to the Pink Flamingo website, the cabaret is now being traded by the new company.
The club closed for five weeks at the start of the year to undergo “crucial” renovations while the cabaret cast were touring at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
The club was advertising a 24-hour “flash sale” of discounted tickets on Wednesday.
Liquidator Jason Bettles said early information suggested Project 88 owed more than $2 million in tax as well as debts to suppliers and related parties.
“It had some financial issues during Covid, and had some events down in Adelaide which didn’t work out,” he said.
“Meanwhile, the debt has mounted – particularly because of the interest rate charged by the ATO these days.”
A report submitted to the liquidator by Mr Rigas said the company owed more than $2 million in tax, $140,000 in superannuation and another $595,000 in other accounts payable.
Mr Bettles said he was aware the club was now being operated by a new company.
“My understanding is that they’re giving Pink Flamingo another go with another entity, which we’ll have a look at in terms of what assets were transferred and that sort of thing,” he said.
The club’s current website was registered by the company in liquidation, and its trademark is owned by Project 88’s holding company, Flocking Birds, which is also directed by Mr Rigas and Ms Porrett.
On Wednesday Mr Rigas said what had happened was “pretty straightforward” and declined to comment further.
Mr Rigas and Ms Huxham have operated nightclubs including Shooters, Mybar, Quest, East and Love Nightlife on the Gold Coast.
The company was last year ordered to pay out $30,000 to two former staff after the workplace watchdog found they were unfairly sacked from the club.
The Fair Work commission found Project 88, trading as Pink Flamingo, did not have grounds to dismiss the former bartender and box office assistant after they revealed a colleague’s confidential salary in private messages.
Commissioner Stephen Crawford ordered the company to pay Sierra Louie and Claudia McLeod a combined $30,000 over the incident.
The commissioner criticised the company for telling the two young women they had committed a criminal offence when they spoke about a friend’s new pay rate.
He found senior manager Ms Huxham’s conduct in accessing her staff’s personal social media accounts had been “far more serious” than the employees’ behaviour.
“The way Project 88’s representatives (including Ms Huxham, Mr Rigas and CEO Peter Snee) presented the severity of what had occurred … made it seem like Ms McLeod and Ms Louie had broken into Project 88’s equivalent to a ‘Watergate complex’, stolen key intellectual property secrets and posted them on WikiLeaks,” Mr Crawford said.
“However, all they had done was privately discuss the salary rate of a friend, and the salary rate was quite unremarkable.”
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Originally published as Company behind nightclub Pink Flamingo Gold Coast in liquidation over $2 million tax debt
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