Motorcycling Australia and state bodies in tense standoff in relation to new constitution

Motorcycle racing in Australia is still in doubt for next year but there could be hope after national and state bodies met to determine a new constitution. Here is what we know.

The future of motorcycle racing in Australia is still in the balance but there is a glimmer of hope the standoff might be resolved with a second vote set to be held next month on a new constitution.

Motorcycling Australia released a statement on Friday to its members saying last minute changes to the constitution were required after ‘MA received additional feedback from an SCB (State Controlling Board) which required review and consideration from the ASC, MA Board and relevant legal teams.’

The changes were added to the constitution on December 18 but only allowed one day for each member, who votes on the constitution, to look and assess them.

This meant the majority of members ‘declared their preference not to move to a vote due to insufficient time provided to review the changes’ according to MA.

MA agreed with the comments and allowed time for each board to review the new constitution before coming back to vote in January.

Earlier

Almost all forms of motorcycle racing in Australia could cease to exist in 2025 if an important vote on a new constitution fails this week.

Motorcycling Australia (MA) made that extraordinary claim in a letter of urgency to members on Friday, outlining how important Thursday’s vote was.

The outcome could impact more than 32,500 members and 350 clubs across the country.

This masthead can reveal MA is at loggerheads with State Controlling Bodies (SCB) over the forming of a new constitution to replace the current one.

Both parties have been involved in a program called the Motorcycling Management Improvement Initiative (MII), designed to help with management of the sport.

The MII is funded and supported by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC).

Over the past few months the three bodies have been working together to form a constitution which would modernise the sport.

But MA has said over the past week a number of SCB’s have decided not to support the new constitution, leaving the process in a delicate position.

The peak body of motorcycling in Australia said ‘the sport was now at a crossroads that could see all motorcycling events and competition across Australia cease if action is not taken.’

Failure to adopt a new constitution, according to MA, could see the ASC withdraw its support while insurance coverage for the sport could also disappear.

At this stage it would not impact the Australian Superbikes national series and the world events, World Superbikes and MotoGP, which are held at Phillip Island every year.

Australian Superbikes, competing in 2022, are unlikely to be impacted by the dispute between MA and the state bodies. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

But state and local events would certainly be under threat.

“If the constitution is not adopted, all the work done over the past three years will be abandoned,” the letter from MA said.

“As a result, it is almost certain that no permits for motorcycle sport will be issued (or current permitted events be allowed to proceed) any later than Christmas this year.”

MA urged the members of each state and territory to put pressure on their body to vote for the constitution.

For the vote to pass it needs 75 per cent of support from the seven state and territory bodies.

This means six out of the seven need to vote yes.

Publicly only two states currently support the new constitution.

South Australia and Queensland both released statements saying they would support the vote on Thursday.

Others are hesitant about agreeing to the move and have concerns about what the new constitution will do for the future of their state bodies.

They claim this includes allowing MA to single-handedly have power to overthrow state boards.

The Motorcycling Australia is looking to implement a new constitution. Picture: Motorcycling Australia.

Motorcycling Victoria (MV), Motorcycling Western Australia (MWA) and Motorcycling New South Wales (MNSW) are the three most concerned about the proposed constitutional changes.

Motorcycling Tasmania also appears to be siding with those states while Motorcycling Northern Territory has not publicly stated its position.

MWA wrote to its members and claimed the new constitution could be devastating.

“The proposed new constitution removes all state rights and allows MA to dictate what goes into the state constitutions, this then cascades to the clubs,” MWA president Peter Campain said.

“The process to elect the MA board effectively allows it to pick its own members regardless of what the states think.

“MWA in consultation (sic) with several other states engaged a law firm that was experienced in this area to give us advice on the new constitution.

Both MWA, MNSW and MV, in letters to its members seen by this masthead, said the legislation changes were ignored by MA.

“We were given a list of points to dispute that were not in the interests of the members,” Campain said.

“The constitution committee was overseen by staff from the Australian Sports Commission whose view of how the sport should be run is very much aligned with MA and the ASC meeting chair refused to discuss any issue that did not suit them, so we are now required to vote on a constitution that four of the seven state bodies did not support through the negotiation stage.

“We now have the ASC threatening to remove their recognition of MA and the state bodies which takes out significant funding and MA threatening to remove the insurance.

“MWA has been actively engaged in the current review process and always acted in good faith.

“We responded to the working group on the 3rd December saying that we were not happy with the process then without as much as an acknowledgment of that

communication we get the current communications storm.”

MV said it only received an updated draft of the constitution on December 12 after working with MWA and MNSW to find ways to alleviate their concerns about the constitution.

The draft came out a few hours before MA went out with their statement.

Despite the objection for each of the four states, all have not said they would vote no to the constitution.

MV president Aaron Drew said their body was assessing all outcomes.

“We are still determining our position on whether to vote for it or not,” he said.

“We still have major concerns over the content and accuracy of some of the material in the document itself.”

Originally published as Motorcycling Australia and state bodies in tense standoff in relation to new constitution