NRMA's bill sends battler to bankruptcy
Sunday Telegraph 16/10/05
by Tony Vermeer
A Mount Druitt roadworker and candidate for the NRMA election
faces financial ruin after being served with a $205,000 bill by NRMA lawyers.
Tim Shelton owes the money as a result of a failed court action he launched against the motoring organisation.
Mr Shelton unsuccessfully challenged the validity of a decision by the NRMA under former president Ross Turnbull, to change the constitution and void the 2003 board election.
He was an independent candidate at the time and is standing again in this year's election under the banner of the Motorists' Action Group.
Mr Shelton has written to the NRMA appealing for the organisation
to waive the legal bill of $205,846 which a court has ordered him to pay.
"
I didn't go to court because of some personal benefit," he said. "I
did it because I believed I was standing up for ordinary members. I was ropeable
because members weren't getting a chance to have a say."
Mr Shelton,
42, who drives a street sweeper, said the NRMA stood to gain nothing by bankrupting
him. He said the only ones who would suffer were his
wife and
three young children.
"
I don't have the money," Mr Shelton said.
" I don't even have a house just a car. I'm just an ordinary family man."
Former
independent NRMA director Richard Talbot said Mr Shelton had suffered simply
for standing up for his fellow NRMA members.
" He stood to gain nothing personally and simply wanted a democratically
elected board,"
Mr Talbot said. "He is now being threatened with financial ruin by the
NRMA. The NRMA should recognise this and pay for its own costs."
If Mr Shelton is forced into bankruptcy, he would be unable to serve as a director in the event that he is elected.
Ironically, former NRMA president Ross Turnbull was also removed from the board after he became bankrupt earlier this year.
More than two million members are eligible to vote in the
NRMA election, the biggest non-parliamentary poll in Australia.
The 2005 election is the first full board election since the adoption
of the new NRMA constitution in 2003.
For the first time, directors will be elected representing defined regions of the state - four in rural NSW and the ACT and five in Sydney. Each region will return one director.
An NRMA spokesman said Mr Shelton's unsuccessful court action had cost a significant amount of NRMA members' money. He said members should not be responsible for paying for his actions.
Doubts cast on validity of NRMA ballot
Sunday Telegraph 16/10/05
By Tony Vermeer
The NRMA election is under a cloud because of allegations that two sitting board members were appointed in contravention of the motoring body's constitution.
Independent candidates have called for their names to be removed from ballot papers or for all votes for them to be declared void.
The directors, Rob Hugh and Jan McClelland, were appointed in January to fill the vacancies caused by separate resignations in July and August, 2004.
But the NRMA's constitution specifies appointments must be made "not
later than the second board meeting following the date on which the vacancy
occurs".
NRMA candidate Christine Golz said the NRMA would not release dates of board
meetings to prove the appointments were constitutional.
She said the NRMA
normally met monthly, and at least four meetings were held before vacancies
were filled. According to its report, there were 12 board
meetings last year.
"
It would appear these appointments are not valid," Ms Golz said.
It is understood the NRMA board devised a strategy of continually adjourning
meetings, rather than closing them formally, while the vacancies remained
open, in order to satisfy the provision.
" In effect, they just had one long meeting," an observer said.
But Ms Golz said this approach had been rejected by the courts in an earlier case lost by the NRMA.
She has written to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, asking for an inquiry into the NRMA, but ASIC has so far refused.
Mr Hugh, a solicitor, and Ms McClelland, a former head of the NSW Education Department, are seeking a new term, along with the other seven members of the board under the banner of the United Board group.
Each is standing in one of the nine voting districts established by a revamped NRMA constitution introduced amid much rancour in 2003.
Motorists Action Group candidate Rod Mackay-Smith and the Greens' Chris Elenor said the ballot papers were misleading and should be changed because Mr Hugh and Ms McClelland were clearly listed on them as directors.
" These names should be taken off the ballot paper or the election has to be re-run," said Mr Elenor, who is standing against Mr Hugh.
An NRMA spokesman said the appointments of Mr McClelland and Mr Hugh were "conducted under the terms of the NRMA Motoring & Services Constitution". He would not comment further.
More than two million NRMA members are eligible to vote in the biggest non-parliamentary election in Australia.
The previous election, in 2003, was voided when the new constitution was passed, reducing the board from 14 to nine members.
Voting, by post and Internet, opened last month and closes on November 4.