Sydney Chiefs Try To Calm Olympic Row
16 April 1998Organisers of the 2000 Sydney Olympics took the rare step on Wednesday of sending out a circular to staff reassuring them that the Summer Games were not being hijacked by politicians. The circular followed the sudden resignation of popular Sydney Olympic spokeswoman Tracey Holmes after a series of disagreements with the state politician who holds the title of Olympics minister and controls the Games purse-strings.
Under an arrangement proposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure political support for the Games, New South Wales (NSW) state Olympics minister Michael Knight also presides over the board of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG).
But Knight, a Labor politician who faces a state election next March, has been accused by opponents of filling SOCOG with political cronies and politicising Sydney's costly showpiece event. Knight, a tall, thin figure who has a taste for a slick soundbite, has impressed some Olympic followers with his confident approach. But a state election is due in New South Wales in March next year. If voters unseat the current Labor government, SOCOG would see a change of leadership only 18 months from the Games.
Reporting Holmes' departure as SOCOG's media information manager, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said it followed months of tension between SOCOG and Knight in his double role as politician and Olympic chief.
"Her departure is also certain to draw further accusations that Mr Knight has politicised the organising of the Olympics," the newspaper reported on Wednesday. Such accusations are not new, but SOCOG chief executive Sandy Hollway told a news conference that he had taken them seriously enough to send a letter to staff denying any tensions between SOCOG management and its board. "We don't have anything to do with politics," Hollway said, quoting from the circular. "And I said to staff: 'You have my personal assurance that we never will,'" Hollway added.
Holmes, a former radio broadcaster who has been at SOCOG for 18 months and become the public face of the Sydney Games, said she had made her decision at the weekend after a three-week trip to Olympic headquarters in Switzerland. But she declined to spell out the reasons behind her decision. "You have various standards and moral judgments and you make your decision based on those," she told reporters.
NSW shadow Olympics minister Ian Armstrong blamed Knight for Holmes' departure and called for his resignation. "He's got to make up his mind -- to be the president of SOCOG, or he's the minister in a Labor government. He can't do both and he can't expect to use SOCOG staff for political advantage," said Armstrong.
The issue of whether the Games have been over-politicised is likely to be raised again later this month when Sydney hosts meetings of the IOC executive board and of the Summer Olympic sports federations.
Sydney Morning Herald article : http://www.smh.com.au/daily/content/980416/national/national10.html
