Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Woe betide anyone who tries to mess with Western Australia. Tonight I rise to address an outrage perpetrated on Western Australia's large and vibrant sporting community—one we are all taking very, very personally—and that is the Australian Rugby Union's disgraceful decision to cut the Western Force from the national competition. I stand 100 per cent with the Western Australian sporting community, with my WA Liberal colleague senators and members, with the state government, with the state opposition and with Rugby WA on this issue. I don't think the ARU has the foggiest idea of what they have unleashed on themselves. Talk about an own goal! If the ARU thought WA would just cower and lie back in the face of this outrage and would not fight back, the ARU is sadly mistaken.

The Western Force is one of Australia's most popular Rugby Union teams, and they have been extraordinarily successful in growing Rugby and developing local players in WA since their foundation in 2005. In the current season, the team were the second-best team in Australia in the Super Rugby competition. Currently they have the third-largest playing base in Australia, and they have no less than six players in the 2017 Bledisloe Cup Wallabies squad—a testament to the strength of the club and the sporting capability and pride resident in Western Australia.

Transparency in public life is just as important in publicly funded sporting organisations as it is here in this chamber. After very carefully reviewing the case made by Rugby WA and the Western Force, I am at a complete loss to understand the ARU's decision. And I completely understand why tens of thousands of supporters are absolutely gutted by this inexplicable decision.

Therefore, I call on the ARU to do two things. Firstly, I call on the ARU to publicly release the information the board have used to justify the decision to cut the Western Force—particularly what they called the 'big spreadsheet' that they claimed demonstrates the decision was in the best interests of Australian rugby. A big, secret spreadsheet—it reminds me a lot of Ros Kelly's great big thumping whiteboard, for those of you in this chamber and elsewhere old enough to remember her whiteboard. Secondly, I also call on the ARU to enter into an open dialogue with Rugby WA and all other interested parties who can propose alternative solutions to the crisis that apparently has resulted in this secret decision.

Today I've also written to the federal Minister for Sport, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, requesting Commonwealth support to encourage the ARU to publicly release the information on this decision and have the courtesy to open a dialogue with Rugby WA. I've also requested Commonwealth support in making public the basis for this decision by the ARU and ensuring the Western Force have the opportunity to address any issues which have led to this decision. I say this to the ARU: if you have nothing to hide, release the documents, make it public, work with Rugby WA, and support Western Australian sporting fans. If you've got nothing to hide, release the documents and do not hide behind your lawyers.