Equestrian Australia placed into voluntary administration

Australia’s national governing body for equestrian sports has been placed into voluntary administration.

EQUESTRIAN Australia has been placed into voluntary administration, rounding out a tumultuous 18 months for the sports’ governing body, which has been rocked by board instability.

Board member John Glenn said the “disappointing” move to place the organisation of 20,000 members into administration followed Sports Australia’s decision to withdraw about $4 million of annual funding last week due to governance issues, which would place EA at risk of insolvency.

“In our sport of so many diverse interests, rarely do our branches, committees, and members share a cohesive view. Disagreement, however, should not be destructive.

“The goal is for EA to rebuild as a viable, representative, democratic and stable national sporting organisation – and return to a focus on sport as quickly as possible,” Mr Glenn said.

Former Olympia Ricky MacMillan resigned as chair last month after just six months at the helm, becoming the third chair in 18 months to do so.

She had promised to overhaul the organisation’s culture, but said change at Equestrian Australia was “unobtainable”.

Craig Shepard and Kate Conneely of KordaMentha have been appointed Voluntary Administrators.

Mr Shepard said business would continue as usual during the administration process, with preparations continuing for competitions including the Olympics.

“The objective of the administration is to stabilise the business and create a plan that will allow the organisation to come out of administration with a solid future,” Mr Shepard said.

Sports Australia’s funding had been withdrawn until the organisation was representative of its membership and stable in governance and operation, a EA statement said, and until then “they could not in good faith continue to contribute public funds”.

The withdrawal of Sports Australia’s funding, coupled with the impact of COVID-19 on forecast revenue, were feared to tip the organisation into insolvency.

EA’s high performance program will be transferred to the Australian Institute of Sport for oversight and funding, with administrators to take control of the remainder of EA’s activities.

The plan is for board members Peter Toft, John Glenn, Helen Hamilton-James and Cathi Collier to work with administers to return the outfit to a “viable, representative, democratic and stable national sporting organisation that is retuned to focus on sport” within a month.

In 2018-19, EA received $4.1 million from government grants and $5 million from its members.

The organisation has annual revenue of $6.5 million, and booked a profit of $141,350 for the 2018-19 year.

Administrators will hold a meeting next month with EA’s two stakeholder groups, its members and Sports Australia, to vote on a plan for the future.

MORE

TRIPLE OLYMPIAN SETS HOPES ON PRIZE MARE

WORLD FAMOUS SHOW ONLINE FOR FIRST TIME