Following months of turmoil within the Huon and Kingston FM community radio station, the popularly elected President Andrew Waterhouse has called a Special General Meeting (SGM) to be held at 2pm in the Huon Ex-Servicemen’s and Women’s Club Huonville on Saturday 15 June 2024.
The business of this meeting is to ask members to vote on a motion to bring forward their Annual General Meeting in order to settle the ongoing dysfunction and to ensure the future of this long-standing community radio station.
At a committee meeting 7 February 2024, Waterhouse – who has been the duly elected President for the past three years and Vice President before then – was ambushed by the Vice President with a rumour that Waterhouse was planning to launch his own radio station in competition to Huon and Kingston FM.
This was an apparently false allegation based on gossip and hearsay with no evidence provided. And importantly, some four months on, this has not happened as was alleged.
The Vice President, Helen Lindsay, and the former Station Manager, David Milne have for years aspired to be voted in as President and have previously put their names forward.
Waterhouse has been elected by the station members with landslide votes in his favour for the past three years.
The ambush could be seen as an opportunity for one of these hopefuls to get the top job.
Huon and Kingston FM are a member of the Commercial Broadcaster Association of Australia (CBAA), a membership association with over 300 members. The CBAA’s members include roughly 80% of Australia’s community radio licensees and is a not for profit cultural organisation established for the promotion of community broadcasting including both radio and television.
Their Head of Development, Declan Kelly, has been providing advice over and above their mantra of being a promotional body, to the Huon and Kingston FM Public Officer, Nigel Ballard on matters of their constitution and on how they should run a Special General Meeting. Kelly did not make contact with Waterhouse and based his conclusions on the one-sided information provided by Ballard. Kelly has supported the committee in their view of what transpired on 7 February 2024 without hearing from Waterhouse on his view of the events.
Following the allegations made by Lindsay, the committee voted to remove their President there and then.
Judge, jury and executioner comes to mind with Waterhouse provided no natural justice and no right of reply. Waterhouse promptly left the meeting and told the committee to put it all in writing to him. The committee never did put their position in writing and Waterhouse has been refused access to any minutes of any meetings.
Despite numerous written requests from Waterhouse and also the media, Ballard – who is both the Public Officer and the Association Secretary – has been unresponsive.
Ballard has refused Waterhouse access to the latest updated members database which is needed for the SGM, and even a registered letter of demand has failed to elicit any response. The behaviour has been nothing less than contemptuous and was described by Kelly of the CBAA as ‘childish behaviour’.
In order to bring this to a head Waterhouse served Ballard with a formal requisition 19 March 2024 accompanied with three witnesses, pursuant to section 12.1.1 and signed by 12 member signatories. Section 12.1.1 states The President may, when he or she thinks fit, convene a special general meeting of the Association.
The constitution further states that the SGM is to be convened within 21 days of the next committee meeting. So as to further delay this meeting Ballard advised Waterhouse their regular committee meetings were postponed and the only official committee meeting was not until an unknown date in May 2024.
Waterhouse was informed only recently by a committee member that they did in fact hold meetings in March and April, but they had considered them to be informal meetings. On speaking with Kelly from the CBAA Kelly said to “stop being petty, of course they were formal meetings”.
Kelly has been supporting Ballard and has been suggesting all along that because Waterhouse did not attend those meetings, he was therefore considered to be not acting as President and is therefore no longer the current President. Waterhouse however was never informed of these meetings and obviously was unable to attend.
The crux of the matter
Where the rubber hits the road in all of this sorry small town committee saga, is the fact that according to their constitution, an office bearer of the station can only be removed if that person leaves the state, ceases to be a member, resigns, becomes bankrupt, is under a guardianship order, fails to pay a subscription, dies, or is dismissed from the committee by a Special General Meeting.
Waterhouse has not resigned and none of the conditions of section 25 apply and their vote to remove him was unconstitutional.
The SGM following the requisition from the President was then scheduled for Sunday 16 June 2024 and to assist the station Kelly provided a recommended motion.
“Does the membership support the decision made by the board to remove Andy Waterhouse as president of the association on 7 February 2024, without following s25.1.6 of the constitution? If the membership does not support this decision, Andy Waterhouse shall be reconfirmed as the president of the association.”
Ballard however would not accept that motion and stated that he wanted to have an all-out public discourse on the events of 7 February, which Waterhouse knew would be nothing more than a ‘he said, she said’ shit fight.
Waterhouse then decided to cancel the Sunday 16 June SGM on 28 May 2024 and Ballard acknowledged at 10.52am he would cancel the venue booking, and there would be no advertising of the meeting.
At 8.46pm the same day, Ballard emailed a requisition to Waterhouse for an SGM to be held on the Sunday as originally planned but on the basis that Waterhouse has breached section 32 of their constitution and that Waterhouse be removed as President. The requisition had 11 signatories however according to the latest list of member financials, two of those signatories were not financial members. The constitution requires no less than 10 financial members to sign a requisition. Ballard has not responded to that issue.
Pursuant to section 32.2 the committee must provide Waterhouse with the evidence to support their suggestion of an alleged breach, must give him 14 days to respond, and must then take into consideration any submissions from Waterhouse. Waterhouse has requested from Ballard in writing to explain the allegation and Ballard has again failed to respond.
Since the requirements as laid out in the constitution have not been adhered to the Sunday 16 June SGM as advertised by Ballard is constitutionally declared invalid.
It is also noted that the ad as placed by Ballard in The Mercury cost the Association in excess of $650.
Waterhouse, as the President, has since advertised a Saturday 15 June 2024 SGM in the Mercury (for only $154). This was published 1 June 2024 giving the required 14 days’ notice and is the only official and legitimate Special General Meeting pursuant to the Huon and Kingston FM constitution and will proceed as planned.
Should 75% of the members present vote in favour of the motions on the day, Waterhouse will be reconfirmed as President, and an early AGM will be called for a time to be advised in early July 2024 ensuring the required notice for members to nominate for the officer and committee positions.
In the Ballard advertisement in The Mercury 30 May 2024, he has in fact referred to Waterhouse as the President.
On 6 June Ballard emailed all members suggesting the Saturday 15 June 2024 SGM is invalid and that “Until such time that the SGM is held, Mr Waterhouse is not the President of the station and does not have authority to release statements on behalf of the station or to cancel the upcoming SGM”.
Ballard has also advised members that the committee will not be attending the Saturday SGM and any votes or motions presented at that meeting will not be legitimate, in his view.
In summary, their Public Officer appears to be completely out of his depth, he has sensationally failed in his legal duties as an Officer of the Association, confusion reigns as the committee including the CBAA spokesperson Kelly, cannot make up their minds if Waterhouse is still the current President or not.
Undaunted and perhaps bemused by all the turmoil, Waterhouse remains focused and strong in his intention to bring stability to this local community radio station that is in desperate need of a clean out, an overhaul (and there is more than just this current debacle) and a much improved and updated constitution. Time will tell.
Meantime, Waterhouse is fielding a considerable number of emails and private phone calls from members offering their full support of Waterhouse, with a number exclaiming that Ballard and the current committee must go. The turn out on Saturday 15 June is looking to have a strong attendance.
Andrew Waterhouse first commenced with the Station in March 2015 and he has been a regular live presenter and is well known for his often controversial take no prisoners interviews on his Grapevine segment broadcast each week. Without fear or favour Waterhouse has interviewed the many political figures of the day, members of the Huon and Kingborough communities and regularly asks the hard questions of Council Mayors and Councillors.
Andrew Waterhouse has gained considerable respect in the Huon and Kingborough communities, and whilst it is only a small local community radio station, he has a loyal following from listeners, their advertisers and sponsors.
