Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Chelsea Warr urged to reapply for Qld Academy of Sport

Sport Minister Tim Mander has hinted Chelsea Warr would be a good fit for her old job as CEO of the Queensland Academy of Sport.

Sport and Olympics and Paralympics Minister Tim Mander last Thursday. Picture: David Clark

• Editor’s view: Righting a wrong

Exiled Queensland Academy of Sport boss Chelsea Warr has been encouraged to apply for her old job as part of an open-market hunt for the “very best” sports leader.

Sport Minister Tim Mander, a strong backer of Ms Warr, revealed the search for a CEO of the academy would soon get under way.

Mr Mander last year described Ms Warr’s shock resignation from the body as a “massive loss of experience”.

He has now declined to be drawn on whether she will return, but says people of her calibre should apply.

“I have a lot of time for Chelsea … I meet with a lot of people in the high performance sport sector to make sure that I understood what they believe should be happening in the future and particularly with the QAS,” he said.

“We’ve been going through a process.

“The next part of the process is to pick a CEO … we’ll go to the open market, but we want people of her calibre to apply because we want the very best heading up this organisation.”

The circumstances surrounding Ms Warr’s shock departure were the subject of a rare citizen’s right of reply granted by parliament’s Ethics Committee this week.

Chelsea Warr exited the Queensland Academy of Sport in controversial circumstances.

It centred around comments made by Department of Sport director-general Andrew Hopper in Parliament last July about the consultation surrounding his decision to downgrade Ms Warr’s CEO position to one titled general manager.

Mr Hopper was asked what consultation he had with the chair of the academy advisory board – easily identified as Renita Garard.

It was put to Mr Hopper “there was no consultation; you advised her of the changes”.

Mr Hopper replied: “I did. It is an advisory board”.

Ms Garard was granted a right of reply to clarify she was unaware of Mr Hopper’s decision until after he had executed it.

“I was not consulted at all prior to the decision being made by Mr Hopper on the changes to the governance structure of the QAS, nor was I consulted on the decision made by Mr Hopper relevant to the employment status of the then QAS CEO,” Ms Garard said.

“Mr Hopper informed me of the changes following his decisions having already been made and after the decisions had been actioned by him.”

It was just the 47th right of reply – granted for civilians to respond to comments made in parliament – since the procedure was established by Terry Mackenroth in February 1995.

Ethics chair Ray Stevens said the committee had not considered or judged the truth of any statements made by Ms Garard or Mr Hopper.

A Sport Department spokeswoman declined to comment on individual human resources matters.

Originally published as Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Chelsea Warr urged to reapply for Qld Academy of Sport