BY DAVE BELL
For two years the establishment media has carried the odd snippet about the NSW Labor Council's plans to lease Currawong, the trade union movement's beachfront holiday retreat on Pittwater, north of Sydney. Over the years Currawong, which the Labor Council has owned since 1947 and which is adjacent to the magnificent Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, has become a semi-secret for unionists. Many have been surprised to learn that as union members they and their families have had access through a ballot system to cheap holidays in fuss-free, old-fashioned and simple but beautiful surrounds.
The problem for the chief driver of the leasing plan, Labor Council secretary Michael Costa, has been the opposition of a sufficient number of unions to his attempt to effectively privatise this valuable union asset.
The story began in 1998 when Costa sought to lease Currawong to Maharishi TM Incorporated and the World Plan Executive Council (WPEC) for 35 years at a rental of $200,000 a year. WPEC is a multinational corporation which, among other activities, provides transcendental meditation (TM) courses for corporate executives and other elites — enabling them to reduce stress levels while screwing the workers with maximum efficiency.
A 35-year lease for Maharishi TM, including first right of refusal to purchase, would have been an effective privatisation, leaving union members with access to only 20% of annual available bed-nights. Support for the Costa proposal would mean unionists in NSW giving support to an outfit which hides good old-fashioned money-making behind a facade of "psychotherapy" and eastern mysticism. It would also have tainted NSW unionism with association with the loopy, ultra-right libertarianism of the Natural Law Party, which is closely linked to Maharishi TM.
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, a number of self-proclaimed left unions like the Independent Education Union of Australia (IEU), the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), and even the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), are supporting the Costa line of going for the money, accepting the line that $200,000 a year could be used for union recruiting and better provision of residential union training at Currawong. This is baloney.
The ALP-right dominated Labor Council has no track record of effective recruiting and any activist knows you expand membership better through militant campaigns than "training", talks and brochures.
Other left unions, like the Teachers Federation, resolved that "it is totally inappropriate and unacceptable for the Labor Council to enter into a commercial arrangement with an organisation whose philosophy is clearly the antithesis of the philosophy of this union and the labour movement at large". It proposed "keeping the facility in union hands for the sole use and benefit of union members".Yet since adopting this approach even the Teachers Federation leadership has chosen to go quiet. The issue has been on the union's executive's agenda paper for 16 months but studiously avoided.
The truth is that Currawong can pay its way, but Costa has consistently refused to let the now defunct Currawong Management Committee get on with its task. From 1998 he has insisted that the only option was a leasing deal with Maharishi TM Inc., which could make the site pay by expanding the residential capacity from 23 to 80 rooms. Costa began negotiating in secret with the Maharishi 12 months before advising the management committee and Labor Council of his plans to hand it over to WPEC. Yet the WPEC plan involved a destructive overdevelopment of a pristine area adjacent to a national park.
Unfortunately for Costa, he was frustrated by the rules of Labor Council, in particular Rule 44, known "the Jack Lang rule". Designed to prevent a hostile majority from flogging off all the property on a whim, Rule 44 specifically prevents the disposal of Labor Council property if a minimum of seven unions are opposed, and Currawong is mentioned by name.
In the past the left unions have used the rule to stop the selling of shares in a Newcastle Radio Station as well as a past proposal to sell Currawong. In the present case for over eight months up to mid-1999 as many as 12 affiliated unions opposed Costa's proposal.
As a result, a frustrated Costa told a May 1999 Labor Council meeting he would drop the leasing idea but would also circumvent the rules by coming up with a "management arrangement" which would give Currawong to Maharishi TM Inc. for 35 years without the need of a lease.
While lawyers consulted on this are of the opinion that the "management agreement" had been illegally endorsed by Labor Council, Costa said it was just like a "cleaning contract".
No previous secretary since John Ducker, including such worthies as Barrie Unsworth, John McBean, Michael Easson, and Peter Sams, have grabbed so much authority with so little critical analysis of the consequences on the part of the unions, left and right. A precedent was being established to extend the powers of the Labor Council secretary to a level never previously conceded and no Labor Council property would be safe in future.
Exit the Maharishi?
After this bold move there was a long silence from Sussex Street. Six months went by and still there was no agreement that anyone was prepared to put their name to. The machine obviously had some problems. To try to break the impasse, in January this year the group Friends of Currawong managed to arrange a meeting at the Labor Council offices. Present were Costa and other Labor Council officers, Ian West, an assistant secretary of the NSW branch of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMWU), and Tim Brennan, the head of the organisation Corporate Renaissance (CR) and former representative for the WPEC. The meeting was chaired by then ACTU president Jennie George.
It emerged during discussion that Costa had received a solicitor's letter from the South Coast Labor Council (SCLC) questioning his authority to bypass Rule 44 and threatening further legal action in the form of a Supreme Court injunction to prevent him proceeding with his plan. Paul Matters was SCLC secretary at the time. Costa stated that the management plan would go ahead with some variations, including a reduction to 60 rooms and a guarantee of 5500 annual room-nights for union members and trade union training.
Moreover, WPEC had pulled out. Although the Maharishi's agent — Brennan — was still involved, Maharishi TM Inc. was not.
A legal entity would be established including the Labor Council (Costa, West and Sean Kidney of Social Change Media) plus Brennan, Helen Patterson (Brennan's personal assistant and teacher of transcendental meditation to Labor Council officers and member of the Natural Law Party), Tom Simmat (architect with CR) and John Burgess (environmental planner with CR). CR would canvass the alumni of the Maharishi's TM movement to get the finance required.
Brennan stated that the new plans were "very different from our initial proposition. Currawong will be an eco-sanctuary as well as providing training and vacations for unionists. It will conform to ACF principles: correct the degraded environment, make it sustainable, observe social responsibility, and act transparently as a business".
Brennan was also negotiating a package deal with the Moran Nursing Homes Group to provide access to Currawong for the wealthy over-55s who would be provided various forms of life-style courses in such things as mobility, dental hygiene and alcohol abuse, with TM preparing them to return to their Moran Group Nursing Home.
Costa stated that he had no intention of submitting the new proposal to the council, but he agreed that all information would be posted on the Labor Council web site Workers On Line by February 28. However, despite Costa's assurances nothing has appeared to date, not even letters on the subject. Similarly, repeated requests for a copy of the management agreement have met with silence. Green Left readers can confirm this statement by trying for themselves.
At the Labor Council annual general meeting, held on February 24, Costa again refused to give the council a full report. However, the Labor Council officers were still uneasy about Rule 44. They wanted the AGM to amend it to eliminate any remaining legal ambiguity. Yet of the 26 rule changes that were acted on at the AGM only one was withdrawn for further consideration — Rule 44. A number of affiliated unions were not prepared to dilute the rule at this stage. Put bluntly, Costa didn't have the numbers.
Legal challenge averted
Back in late 1999 the SCLC had decided to challenge the legal validity of Costa's agreement. The SCLC had found a barrister and a solicitor willing to take the case gratis and the Pittwater and Currawong Beach Preservation Association had provided the funds to pay lodgement fees in the Supreme Court.
However, under the new leadership of Arthur Rorris, who had replaced Paul Matters as secretary, the SCLC decided on April 5 not to proceed with legal action. Rorris was strongly supported to replace Matters by Costa who told the Manly Daily on March 21 that "I can guarantee there will be no challenge from the South Coast Labor Council".
In April, Costa told the SCLC that the "Currawong Beach Heritage Foundation" which would administer the site now consisted of Costa, Ian West, Shaun Kidney for the Labor Council and Brennan, Simmat, Christine Smetser (head of student housing at the Sydney University of Technology), and Stephen Harrison (CR accountant).
Costa denied emphatically that the Moran Group were involved in a long term contract to use the site for wealthy retirees and claimed that the ACTU supported his plans. He reaffirmed that the WPEC was no longer involved and refused to answer a question from a Teachers Federation delegate about the increased cost to unions.
In August 2000 a new player, called "Longevity Management Systems Pty Ltd" (LMS) came on stage. At around the same time the "Heritage Foundation" became the "Conservation Foundation", CR disappeared but the tenacious Brennan survived as director of LMS, set up to develop and supervise the Currawong site under contract to the new managing body known as Currawong Conservation Foundation Ltd.
When asked at an August Labor Council meeting if the agreement had been signed Costa said it had; trustees Andrew Ferguson (CFMEU), Bill Wooldridge (Electrical Trades Union) and Michael Want (Australian Services Union) have done as instructed. When asked if he had signed, Ferguson said he wasn't sure but he thought he had, but gave the impression that he had no idea of the details of the agreement.
The Currawong Conservation Foundation has a board comprising three Labor Council trustee nominees and four non-Labor Council representatives elected by the members. The agreement doesn't explain who "the members" are . Clause 11.2 (Membership) states that John Graves of Parish Patience, lawyers to the Maharishi will provide the details!
In January LMS had three listed directors: Brennan, his wife Diane Brennan, and Peter Barnes, a founder of the Natural Law Party and also a Maharishi devotee. The public record shows these three as also being the only registered directors of the Currawong Conservation Foundation!
Rotten deal
So what do unionists get out of this deal, other than the longest management agreement in history?
The unions' accommodation costs for union training rise over 600% on current rates. Using their allocated 5500 room-nights at the concessional rate unionists pay $390,000 a year, $190,000 more than the Labor Council receives in fees. Unions get diminishing proportional access and LMS takes the cream as the development proceeds.
There is no guarantee that if the requirements for training and/or recreation increase that unionists can increase their access to room-nights at a concessional rate. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that unionists will continue to enjoy a concessional rate.
In addition, the Currawong Conservation Foundation has the first right of refusal to buy or lease Currawong and LMS is entitled to operate the facility for 35 years even if the unions wanted to sell to someone else.
What we are witnessing is the privatisation of a union asset built up over the last 50 years for unionists and their families to enjoy.
Costa stated recently that Currawong was one of those pieces of unfinished business that he wanted settled prior to his move to the NSW upper house. However, the Currawong issue is so grotesque in its betrayal of union values that it will not be possible to "settle". This rotting corpse will haunt Costa and his mates for a long time to come.
[Dave Bell is a NSW Teachers Federation delegate to Labor Council of NSW.]