Jeff Kennett on Australian Olympic Committee: New look at top of AOC long overdue
THE Australian Olympic Committee and its members are preparing to vote in May on its leadership team for the next four years. It is clearly time for a change, writes Jeff Kennett.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Australian Olympic Committee and its members are preparing to vote in May on its leadership team for the next four years.
This election will be the first the incumbent, John Coates, has faced in 27 years. If successful he will be in the job for more than 30 years.
I believe there are three priorities for those elected.
1. Good governance of the AOC, whose members are custodians of the Olympic ideal exercised in Australia.
2. Assisting athletes who make up each Australian team.
3. The Australian public and our international reputation through our conduct in all things Olympic.
Now there is an election being conducted between John Coates, who has offered himself for re-election as AOC president, and Danni Roche, who is the first person to challenge in 27 years.
DANNI ROCHE LOOKING TO TOPPLE JOHN COATES AS PRESIDENT OF THE AOC
Coates is 67, a solicitor by training. He has spent a lifetime in sports administration starting with responsibilities within Australian amateur rowing in 1978.
I have known Coates since the mid-1980s. Today he is AOC president and chairman of the Australian Olympic Foundation, which has assets of about $145 million. He is also a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee.
Coates is a tough individual who does not tolerate fools lightly nor opposition to his views. But nor has he reformed the AOC in the way the IOC and FIFA have changed their administrations to ensure better governance.
Coates receives more than $700,000 each year in consulting fees for what should be an honorary position at best, or at worse a small fee, for what is a part-time job.
Roche, 47, won a gold medal as a member of the Hockeyroos at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.
A member of a highly respected Melbourne sporting family, Roche had an illustrious private-sector career at Telstra and financial institutions, before starting her own business.
She was director of Hockey Australia for seven years, is on the St Kilda Football Club board and on the Australian Sports Commission board.
Roche has been nominated for the AOC presidency by Hockey Australia. The presidency will be decided by 92 AOC delegates by secret ballot.
As readers will know, I think a leader should stay at the helm of their organisation between six
and nine years.
If you can’t achieve what you want to do in that time, you should move on. If you do achieve the goals you have set, you should move on anyway to allow fresh views and people to keep the momentum going.
Coates’ 27-years tenure is too long under any circumstances.
Staying in a job that long leads to hubris at best and, at worst, bulling, arrogance and intemperate behaviour.
Recently in public, Coates described Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie as a liar and a c---.
This is not the sort of person qualified to lead the AOC. But sadly, it typifies the individual.
The right to rule, the arrogance of a person who believes he is bigger than the organisation he or she is elected to serve.
What has happened to the ideals of the Olympic movement articulated by founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin?
I made a mistake last weekend when I called for the federal government to withdraw funding from the AOC. The government provides very little if any money directly to the AOC, but that does not excuse the government from expressing its displeasure with Coates’ behaviour.
How often have you heard government ministers speak out about discrimination or inappropriate behaviour? The abuse of Adam Goodes, and more recently Eddie Betts, for example.
Why do the delegates who will cast a vote tolerate such an individual? And such behaviour. Some do because their sports receive funds from the AOC.
Some do because they are jockeying to succeed Coates when he does eventually step down.
Self-interest is alive and well at the AOC. Well, at least until proven otherwise.
I would like to see all delegates have the courage to vote for good governance.
The current public slanging matches have in the main come about because of what some described as our poor performance at the Olympics in Rio.
But Australia is a small country by population, so to argue we should repeat outcomes of the past is ludicrous.
Let’s hope the delegates who vote for their next leader have the courage to do what is right for the future of athletes and the Olympic spirit. They have one chance to set a new and more inclusive future.
We need leadership to serve others and their country, and to conduct themselves publicly in a way we can all admire and of whom we can be proud.
Service before self, not self before service.
It is clearly time for a change.
Have a good day.
Jeff Kennett is a former premier of Victoria
Human cost of pandemic goes much further than virus
Whether you are pro or anti-lockdown the grim, unintended consequences of the fixation on coronavirus are undeniable, as other diseases — including cancer and heart disease — go unchecked, and despair from joblessness, poverty and financial stress rises, writes Rita Panahi.
Premier must outline his plan so Melbourne can recover
As the community overwhelmingly complies with the Premier’s stage four restrictions, he must clearly outline his virus strategy so we can make plans to rebuild confidence and employment in our city, which right now is a ghost town, writes Jeff Kennett.