Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has taken aim at "barbarians" and "arsonists" while defending himself in a fiery address at the organisation's annual meeting.
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Speaking on Saturday in Sydney, Coates's arsonist comment was clearly aimed at those who opposed him in last year's presidential election and raised allegations of a culture of bullying within the AOC.
His comment about "barbarians at the gate" referred to outside interests being denied access to Australian Olympic Foundation (AOF) funds after its trust deed was amended earlier this month.
Coates was clearly in an unforgiving mood after the bitter lead-up to the 2017 election, in which he defeated a challenge by hockey gold medallist Danielle Roche.
On Saturday, he took aim at those who made the bullying allegations.
"The facts here, as determined by the independent committee, suggest that a specific human resources issue was inflamed into an alleged macro-cultural problem," Coates said in his address.
"And that this was done by those seeking to present themselves as the solution. That the AOC was besmirched by exaggerated claims and pejorative hyperbole, expressed for political advantage.
"And that those who claimed a motivation to protect the AOC's reputation more closely resembled both arsonist and firefighter."
Asked after the meeting who he was referring to, Coates said the people who convened the special meeting of the AOC executive less than two weeks before the vote.
Coates was also on the front foot about protecting the AOF, which provided money to cover the cost and expenses of the AOC.
The foundation's trust deed was amended this month, with the life members of the AOC effectively controlling the distribution of funds and shutting other organisations.
"It means the Australian Olympic Foundation's capital and ongoing distributions is secure," Coates said.
"To those with designs on raiding the foundation - you are well served to look elsewhere.
"Put simply, our guardians on the wall cannot be defeated by any barbarians at the gate."
The Australian Sports Commission was clearly one organisation Coates had in mind.
"Blind Freddie would have realised that there was interest in our money at a time when additional funding wasn't being made available by the federal government to the Australian Sports Commission," Coates said after the AGM.
"You could get to a situation where someone through external influence could take voting control of the AOC but it's a big hurdle now that they would have to have more than 75 per cent, and then we've got the guardians."
Regarding the mooted bid by Brisbane to stage the 2032 Olympics, Coates stressed transport links were the biggest issue.
"It won't work unless they fix the transport and they have to fix the transport anyway," Coates said.
"But it's a lot of money. They've got to get the federal government and state government behind them so we're encouraged by the attitude they are taking."
Australian Associated Press
