Darwin Turf Club chairman Brett Dixon ‘hurt’ by Turf Club fall out

AN unrepentant Brett Dixon has lashed out at “devious people” who he says have planted a “false narrative” about the controversial Darwin Turf Club grandstand tender

An unrepentant Brett Dixon has lashed out at ‘devious people’ who he says have planted a ‘false narrative’ about the controversial Darwin Turf Club grandstand tender

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AN unrepentant Brett Dixon has lashed out at “devious people” who he says have planted a “false narrative” about the controversial Darwin Turf Club grandstand tender.

The turf club, of which Mr Dixon is chairman, awarded a $12 million contract to build a three-level grandstand to his construction company Jaytex. The project is funded by a grant from the NT Government.

A probity report into the deal found the decision-making process around the grandstand tender had been above board.

In an interview with Katie Woolf on Mix 104.9 on Tuesday morning, Mr Dixon said he was “pretty angry” about the way the issue had played out in the media.

“There are some very devious people out there who want to run a false narrative about me, they want to run a false narrative about the Darwin Turf Club. (They are) not prepared to put their names to any of the accusations, not at all,” he said.

The saga had taken a toll on the DTC board, he said.

“It’s hurt the lot of us, especially when we did not deserve this,” he said.

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Mr Dixon said he would still enter Jaytex into the running for the tender if given the opportunity to do it again.

“I would follow the same path,” he said.

The fall out from the tender decision led Chief Minister Michael Gunner to announce plans to change grant rules to give the Government greater power to intervene in event of real or perceived conflicts of interest.

“I know the Chief Minister came out the other day and said ‘perceived conflict’ and all the rest of it,” Mr Dixon said.

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“So many people in this town have perceived conflicts. You know are we going to tie this town into knots?

“We are a tiny town. There is one way around this and that is to manage the conflicts. Don’t exclude or preclude people from a right to trade. It’s a small town and we have done this very well. We couldn’t have done this better.”