Millions wasted in Labor's soccer play
ANTHONY KLAN
IN the final weeks of the 2010 federal election campaign, Julia Gillard announced a $10 million grant to go towards a $40m sporting and community complex on the NSW central coast, which was slated to be among the nation's best.
Today that project is in danger of collapse, with builders walking away from the development late last year over hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid debts, and very few of the community benefits spruiked by the government have actually materialised.
The Central Coast Mariners A-league soccer club's planned "Centre of Excellence" at Tuggerah was due to be completed early this year.
Instead the development sits idle with patches of over-grown glass spurting up between half-complete buildings, and stands as nothing more than a monument to government waste. With the Mariners club facing possible collapse - with players threatening to strike over unpaid wages and the Australian Taxation Office circling over unpaid debts - it has emerged the funding was tied not to the community benefits but a handful of facilities for the elite club.
Both the club and the developer of the project - which are separate legal entities - were last night locked in ongoing negotiations with investor and IT businessman Mike Charlesworth in a bid to save the club and the developer from administration.
Less than three weeks before the 2010 election, Ms Gillard and local member Craig Thomson - whose heavy lobbying for the grant brought it about - visited the site and announced the grand project billed as "world class".
The development, they announced, would include a heated indoor aquatic centre, community gym, function centre, education facilities, a 150-room hotel, a museum, and community doctor and dental services.
The federal government was to inject $10m in the $39m project, which was to be completed by Mariners FC Developments, a company created for the purpose owned by three businessmen associated with the Mariners Football Club.
The complex would provide "state-of-the-art" facilities for the Central Coast Mariners, and the raft of community services.
It was, in the words of an August 2010 ALP campaign media release, an "Elite Meets Community Sports Campus".
However, more than $9m of that government grant has been handed over and the community side to the project is yet to materialise.
Peter Turnbull, a director of Mariners FC Developments, said football fields, a "soccer 5s centre" along with changerooms and gym, dressing rooms, coaches' offices and football match facilities had been completed. But he said none of the federal grant was tied to the community gym or medical services.
Department of Regional Australia, Arts and Sport spokesman Anthony Meere declined to comment when asked whether the government had any concerns regarding the future of the proposed development.
"The Australian government has delivered in its commitment to the Mariners sports complex. To date milestone payments totalling $9,006,590 have been paid," he said.
A spokesman for Mr Thomson did not return calls yesterday.
Builder North Constructions walked off the site in December after the developers failed to pay about $500,000 in debts.
The Weekend Australian can also reveal the Mariners FC Developments has missed a deadline earlier this month to pay $3m to the Wyong RSL Club to finalise the purchase of a parcel of land on which part of the project is to be developed.
Facing financial distress, the Wyong RSL in 2008 sold Club Tuggerah, a club and 14ha of land adjacent to the existing Mariners' grounds.
The sale price was $7.5m with $4.5m payable at the time and the remaining $3m due earlier this month.
Company searches show Mariners FC Developments owes $6.25m to Adelaide-based Angas Securities, a shadow-bank debenture issuer that raises money from ordinary investors.
Records show all of the assets of Mariners FC Developments are mortgaged to Angas.
The accounts of Angas show a late 2012 valuation of the entire site and buildings at just $12m.
The directors and equal shareholders of Mariners FC Developments are Mr Turnbull, Mr Charlesworth and Lyall Gorman, a former director of the Mariner's Football Club.
Speaking with The Weekend Australian yesterday, Mr Charlesworth dismissed media reports he had agreed to inject $5m into the failing club.
He said he was involved in ongoing negotiations with both the club and the developer.
"No figure is being stipulated and no deal has been concluded," Mr Charlesworth said. He confirmed the developer currently owed North Constructions "about $500,000".
The precise figure the Mariners Football Club owes the ATO was unclear.
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