Clandestine conspiracy
Baird: Newspaper bosses protected Sydney bid
Posted: Thursday February 18, 1999 04:22 PM
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IOC representatives enjoyed lavish gifts during their visits to Sydney. Nick Wilson/Allsport |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Sydney newspapers made a secret deal not to report on the fawning and spending during the city's successful bid for the 2000 Olympics, former Olympics Minister Bruce Baird said.
Baird, one of 15 members of the board that directed the 1993 bid, also defended the lavish spending of the team, saying sponsors would have been unhappy if the committee had not done all it could to secure the games.
"At the time we did the bid, we had an agreement from Ken Cowley of News Ltd., from Kerry Packer, and from John Alexander of The Sydney Morning Herald that they knew we would be going into a high level of duchessing and they were satisfied that that would be OK and they would not run the normal stories about it," Baird told federal parliament Wednesday night.
Packer and Sydney Morning Herald editor Paul McGeough denied the allegations, with Packer saying the claims were "absolute bull."
"If you want a rude reply, I will give you one of those," Packer said.
"SMH [Sydney Morning Herald] editorial policy is there are no special deals for anyone; that included the Olympic bid," McGeough said.
Baird also said an inquiry into the Sydney bid was politically motivated in the leadup to a New South Wales state election next month. The party that wins the elections will be in power during the Olympics.
Independent investigator Tom Sheridan is due to report to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) board March 11, but Baird said there was no reason for an urgent inquiry.
"Six years later, here we go, we have this inquiry on," Baird said.
"I believe this is a political exercise. Why couldn't [Labor state Olympics Minister] Michael Knight wait for another couple of weeks until the election was over? The International Olympic Committee has known about these people on the take for many years."
Baird said the Sydney bid was expensive, but clean.
"Of course lobbying was important in the whole process and we do not apologize for the lobbying process," said Baird, who added that $12.7 million of the $17.8 million bid money came from the private sector.
He also said Manchester, England, which had also bid for the 2000 Games, had charter flights and dinners with Princess Anne on offer at the time.
"So if we are talking about duchessing, we were one of the minor players," he said.
Baird repeated his call for reform of the bid process, with a small technical committee spending no more than four days visiting each city.
The 15 members of the Sydney bid board reported no breaches of the IOC code in a report this week, aside from a report by Baird.
Baird told the IOC that an IOC member had sought inducements before the vote while a man claiming to act for African delegates also sought favors in exchange for votes. The member named by Baird has since resigned, former board member John Fahey said earlier this week.
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