Wilderness Society National Management Committee Illegitimate, says Supreme Court

The Tasmanian Supreme Court has just ordered that the National Management Committee of the Wilderness Society was improperly elected at an invalid Annual General Meeting (AGM), and is therefore illegitimate.

This follows deep unrest within the organisation after a controversial AGM was held in November 2009, with just 14 people present, where the current National Management Committee effectively re-elected itself.

Campaign Centres and members were not notified of the meeting and it was only advertised in a small newspaper in northern Tasmania (The Advocate).

Hearing a legal challenge to the National Management Committee’s AGM in November 2009 by Wilderness Society member Anthony Esposito, the court has just issued the following orders:

The Court declares that the meeting held on the 5th of November purporting to be the Annual General Meeting of the Wilderness Society Inc for 2009 was invalid.

The Court declares that the resolution passed on 5 November appointing the second respondent (Lyn Goldsworthy, Larry O’Loughlin, Lena Aahlby, Rosemary Norwood, Christine Olsen) to the management committee of the Wilderness Society Inc was invalid.

The Court declares that the resolution passed on 5 November 2009 approving an amendment of R9.1B of the Wilderness Society Inc constitution was invalid.

The Court declares that the third respondent (the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs) was not entitled to register the resolution passed at the meeting held on 5 November 2009.

In applauding Mr Esposito for his courage in mounting the case for accountability and democracy for the Wilderness Society, Campaign Managers said:

“This is an unequivocal victory for Campaign Centres, for staff and members”.

“Members of the Wilderness Society must now have their chance to vote this illegitimate group out and elect a new Management Committee that has the trust and confidence of members, campaigners and other staff of the organisation”.

“This is a total vindication of what we have been arguing about the lack of legitimacy of this Management Committee, and their Executive Director, Alec Marr. They have no mandate, no authority, and no credibility”.

“We now call for the current Committee to move into caretaker mode, and to stand down Alec Marr immediately. The special meeting on 2 May must now become the 2009 Annual general Meeting, and the first order of main business must be election of a trusted Management Committee.”

Felicity Wade (NSW)
Tim Seelig (Queensland)
Vica Bayley (Tasmania)
Gavan McFadzean (Victoria)
Peter Robertson (WA)
Vanessa Culliford (Newcastle)

From A Reader:

A major dispute within one of Australia’s most prominent conservation organizations, The Wilderness Society, is to be aired at a General Meeting in Canberra on 2010-05-02.

A group within TWS, called Save The Wilderness Society, states that the Supreme Court of Tasmania has declared that a number of recent meetings and decisions of TWS have been invalid.

The General Meeting is accordingly being asked to make certain changes to the TWS Constitution, which include a new requirement for a postal ballot, for which is to be specified a multiple first-past-the-post vote, albeit with plumping allowed, as the electoral system.

It is regrettable that such an influential organization, particularly one that started in Tasmania, the home of the superb Hare-Clark electoral system, plans to persist with such a crude, unfair and unrepresentative electoral system as the notorious multiple first-past-the-post procedure.

Andrew Crook, on Crikey:

Greenies see red as Wilderness Society descends into chaos
by Andrew Crook

The Tasmanian Supreme Court has slapped down beleaguered Wilderness Society executive director Alec Marr’s bid to retain control over the organisation, ruling this morning that a secret AGM attended by just 14 people last year was invalid.

In a short hearing, in which Marr’s umbrella organisation TWS Inc declined to offer a substantial defence, judge Peter Evans also ruled a special resolution passed at the meeting to increase the threshold for constitutional change to 4,500 names was invalid.

Queensland Wilderness Society Campaign Manager Tim Seelig, part of a dissident group challenging Marr for control of the divided organisation, immediately called on Marr and his national committee of management to fall on their swords.

“Alec’s authority and the management committee is now trashed,” he told Crikey outside court. “They should stand down immediately. The state campaign centres are now calling on the committee to immediately stand down so members can properly rule on their future.”

The court was asked to rule on the sparsely-attended AGM in November last year that changed the constitution and ensured the Marr-dominated management committee would serve for another three years. In a move reminiscent of the darkest manoeuvrings of student politics, the AGM was advertised in the mostly-unread Fairfax publication the Burnie Advocate.

Dissidents last night circulated a letter to members and a media release from six campaign centre managers urging members to converge on Canberra for a special meeting on May 2, organised by Marr. The state-based groupings say they have the backing of 95% of the organisation’s 45,000-strong membership.

“We have completely lost trust and confidence in the Executive Director and the national management committee … It’s time for change,” they wrote, highlighting “bullying and poor staff management, wasteful consultancies” and a lack of campaign “direction and accountability”. Marr had originally called the meeting to shore up his authority by allowing a postal vote on its future.

Meanwhile, Crikey can reveal Marr shut down his own email system yesterday to prevent dissidents from contacting members. At 4:40pm, as forces committed to Marr’s overthrow prepared to send out a missive spruiking their intention to roll the veteran campaigner, access to the group’s ‘PHP’ mailing list was shut down.

Marr confirmed this morning that he had ordered the email list be taken off-line, saying the proposed mailout calling on him to resign was “illegal”, an “invasion of people’s privacy” and was designed to spread “misinformation among the members”. Newcastle campaigner Vanessa Culliford, who drafted the letter to members, had “absolutely no legal rights at all” to access the email list.

“We’re a separately incorporated body, and it’s an abuse of the email system,” he said.

But Culliford denied the claims: “the PHP lists are created through the work that state-based campaign centres do. I am simply informing our membership of the views of the state campaign centres … in terms of being abused by Alec Marr, I’ve been working for TWS for a long time so I’m used to it.”

Dissidents say the May 2 meeting to enable members to submit postal votes will now become a referendum on his membership style.

Before this morning Supreme Court ruling, Marr said his proposed changes to the Wilderness Society’s structure would benefit members: “We’ve already agreed to a new AGM. Our biggest problem was the previous AGM didn’t allow enough people to be involved.

“The organisation has overhauled its constitution — we’ve currently got the constitution of a tennis club for an organisation with 45,000 people. It’s completely inappropriate and allows small groups of people to effectively take over without a mandate.”

Acrimony continues to fester in Wilderness Society offices across Australia. One incident, confirmed by three parties, involved a spat over microwaved spaghetti bolognese at lunch time, with the re-heater accused of being a “meat eater” by ecologically-tinged staff.

Marr personally investigated the claims and unleashed a tirade against the complainants, who appeared to be a proxy for the organisation’s split between grassroots eco-warriors and be-suited management focused on business plans.

After the spaghetti eating finance staffer left the organisation, Marr is reported to have unleashed the following tirade: “You don’t have to be a fucking greenie to work at TWS. I’ve got a great big four-wheel drive. But at least I haven’t had a fucking BABY!”

Marr said the comments were “meant to be a joke”.