Received from Woodend Hanging Rock Petanque Club Inc. on 25/09/2008. See also Pique and troughs for petanque club (Melbourne Age article). See also PETANQUE FEDERATION AUSTRALIA right of reply

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Update on Woodend Hanging Rock Petanque Club Inc (the Club) and its members' wish to be affiliated with Petanque Federation Australia Ltd (PFA) Following a meeting of the Board of Directors of PFA on 21 June 2008, the directors purported to pass a resolution to terminate the Club's membership of PFA. In reaching its decision to terminate the Club's membership, the PFA Board failed to provide the Club with natural justice in several ways. Serious allegations were made against the Club in support of the proposal to terminate its membership.

The Club wrote to PFA and requested that it provide the Club with details of the allegations and documents in support of them. Apart from seven pieces of correspondence, PFA has refused to provide any further documents or information. PFA also refused the Club's request that those making allegations against it be made available for questioning about the substance of the allegations. Despite the Club's submission to the Board Meeting on 21 June 2008, the PFA Board has failed to provide proper reasons for its decision to pass a resolution purporting to terminate the Club's membership. Following the PFA Board's decision, PFA has asserted that the PFA Appeals Policy does not apply to the Club's case although the Policy quite clearly identifies "Clubs" as being bound by the Policy and entitled to its benefits.

The Club has effectively been informed that it has no right of internal appeal from the decision to pass a resolution purporting to terminate its membership. The wider Petanque community should be alarmed at the approach of the PFA Board. There has been an apparent disregard for the requirements of the PFA Constitution and its policies as well as general principles of natural justice. Our Club sought and was entitled to receive a fair hearing following provision of evidence from PFA so that it had a proper opportunity to rebut the serious allegations against it.

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The Club and its Secretary, Chinka Steel, have offered an apology for the conduct of Chinka Steel at the PFA AGM in April 2008. Without making any concessions about the validity of the concerns which Chinka Steel raised on that occasion, the Club and Chinka accept that the manner in which he raised his concerns was not appropriate. The Club otherwise refutes allegations made against it or denies that they have any relevance to the Club's membership of PFA. Where has this led us? Unfortunately we have today issued proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia seeking that the Court determine that PFA has acted outside the powers of its Constitution and against the laws of Australia. This action has come at considerable cost to our Club and is taken as a last resort to resolve this issue.

The Club has made several "without prejudice" offers to settle the matter, all of which have been rejected by PFA. The Club has also offered to have the matter mediated by an independent third party. To date, PFA has not responded to this offer. For details of our claim, please visit our website: http://www.petanqueattherock.com.au/announce.htm We provide this update in our wish to have an open and transparent communication with our fellow Clubs and lovers of our sport of Petanque. Woodend Hanging Rock Petanque Club has since inception been a positive and contributing citizen of the Petanque community, hosting Umpire Courses, National Championships and contributing to the development and the betterment of the sport. Today is a sad day - many hours of volunteer labour raised the thousands of dollars already spent by our Club.

We will pursue our goal of being a member of PFA with vigour and enthusiasm as we believe our players are entitled to the player pathway that affiliation offers our ordinary fee-paying members. If you have any other queries about the Club's position, please do not hesitate to telephone: Ken Helmore on 0448 188 838 Ian Castle 0417 399 125 Chinka Steel 0427 272 826

You can also download two leagal documents relating to this case directly here:

Be warned, these documents are highly legalistic and therefore extremely long winded and dry. Nevertheless, one does not need a legal background in order to see that the APF has sadly landed itself in very deep water. A sad and costly exercise in which only our game will be the loser. Lets all reflect on this and make sure this will never happen here in NZ. -Tom.

http://www.petanqueattherock.com.au/docs/WHRPCI_statement.pdf

http://www.petanqueattherock.com.au/docs/WHRPCI_application.pdf

See also PETANQUE FEDERATION AUSTRALIA right of reply

These documents are also freely available from the Woodend Hanging Rock Petanque Club Inc website. -Tom.

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