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Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
Final Report
For the period 1 July–30 September 2013
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
18 December 2013
Hon Steve Dickson MP Minister for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing Level 7, 111 George Street Brisbane QLD 4000 Dear Minister I am pleased to present the Final Report for the Parklands Trust. During this financial year the venue only operated for three months up until 30 September 2013. I certify that this Final Report complies with the:
prescribed requirements of the Financial Accountability Act 2009 and the Financial and Performance Management Standard 2009; and
detailed requirements set out in the Final report requirements for Queensland Government agencies.
A checklist outlining the final reporting requirements is available at www.nprsr.qld.gov.au. Yours sincerely
Stephen Sharry Chief Executive Officer Parklands Gold Coast Trust
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
About this report
This Final Report provides information about the Parklands Trust financial and non-financial
performance for the period 1 July–30 September 2013. It has been prepared in accordance with the
Final Requirements Queensland Government Agencies 2013.
The report records the significant achievements during the year as well as audit information and
financial statements.
A copy of this report is available in electronic form by PDF file at
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/about/corporatedocs/index.html
The report is also available in hard copy form from the Office of Racing.
Enquiries can be directed to
The Office of Racing Phone: (07) 3338 9343 Fax: (07) 3338 9355 Email address: info@racing.qld.gov.au
ISSN: 1839-4647 (Print)
Interpretation:
The Queensland Government is committed to providing accessible
services to Queenslanders from all culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds. If you have difficulty in understanding the final report, you
can contact us on (07) 3338 9343 and we will arrange to assist you.
This report is copyright ©Parklands Gold Coast 2013.
This final report is licensed by the Parklands Gold Coast under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC
BY) 3.0 Australia licence.
CC BY Licence Summary Statement:
In essence, you are free to copy, communicate and adapt this
final report, as long as you attribute the work to the State of
Queensland Parklands Trust. To view this licence, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en
Attribution
Content from this final report should be attributed as:
The State of Queensland Parklands Gold Coast final report 2012-2013.
Images
Where images are included in this final report you may only use the image (in its entirety and
unaltered) as an integrated part of this entire final report or as an unaltered integrated part of an
extract taken from this final report.
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
Parklands Gold Coast Final report 2013/2014
Index
Section Page
About this report 3 Letter of compliance 4 Chairman’s report 5 CEO report 6 Governance, Management and Structure 8 Risk Committee 9 Facility Manager’s Report 9 Role and Functions 10 Operating Environment 11 External Scrutiny 12 Forward Operations 12 Objectives and Performance Indicators 12 Public Sector Ethics Act 13 Financial Statements 14 Statement of Comprehensive Income 16 Statement of Financial Position 17 Statement of Changes in Equity 18 Statement of Cash Flows 19 Notes to the Financial Statements 20 Certificate Parklands Gold Coast Trust 45 Independent Audit Report 46
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
Chairman’s report 2013/2014 Parklands Gold Coast Trust
As a consequence of the termination of the Parklands Gold Coast Trust at midnight 30 September
2013 and the necessity to wind down trading activities to achieve complete cessation by the closing
date. The Trustees and staff were devoted during the period to the significant issues of asset
realisation, termination of tenancies, reviewing and implementing staff redundancies while
maintaining the facility for events and Harness Racing activity up to the closure date. The last
Harness Racing event was held on 27 September 2013 allowing only three days for the removal of
assets.
Extensive staff and Chief Executive Officer time was deployed on matters associated with asset
disposals particularly plant and equipment. Regular meetings were also held with Departmental
Officers responsible for the takeover of the site on 1 October 2013 to facilitate the demolition and
redevelopment associated with the future Commonwealth Games village. Substantial time has also
been deployed by the Trustees and executive staff on matters associated with the ongoing litigation
initiated by the Gold Coast Harness Racing Club against the Queensland Government to which the
Gold Coast Parklands Trust was a party.
I have been greatly impressed and delighted with the diligence reflected by all of the Trust staff and
management throughout the period that was to see the termination of their employment. I have
publicly complimented the outgoing staff for their loyalty and efficiency during this period.
I believe the termination of the Trust has been effectively accomplished. We were able to ultimately
transfer back to the Queensland Government funds in excess of $5 million and to allocate
substantial plant and equipment to the Racing industry, various South East Queensland clubs,
charities and organisations in accordance with directions. It is also noteworthy that the entity has
again received an unqualified audit report for this its final trading period.
I have enjoyed my seven-year period of involvement as Chairman of Trustees and have greatly
appreciated the assistance and cooperation extended to me during that period by my co-Trustee,
Susan Forrester, and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sharry.
Jim Callaghan
Chairman of Trustees
Parklands Gold Coast Trust
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
CEO Report 2013/2014
Parklands Gold Coast Trust
The 2013/2014 financial year covered the period 1 July 2013 to 30 of September 2013. At midnight
on 30 September 2013 the Gold Coast Parklands Trust ceased to exist under direction from the
Minister for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing—after 25 years of operation servicing
sport, entertainment and tourism on the Gold Coast. The venue will be the site of the 2018
Commonwealth Games Athletes Village and a Health and Knowledge precinct.
The Light Rail construction project, although reaching the end of construction, continued to impact
on Parklands, exacerbated by the prior planning decision to reduce the capacity of Parklands Drive
from four lanes down to two. Light Rail liaison with Macdow and the Southport reference group was
excellent through Chief Executive Officer, Phil Mumford, and Manager, Bruce Miller. The Gold Coast
Show Society were forced to review and rewrite their traffic management plan to cope with the
traffic configuration.
One of the main income streams that kept Parklands buoyant was student carparking for Griffith
University. This income continued to be reduced due to the decision by Queensland Health to
support the early opening of the privately operated undercover hospital car park which offered
reduced charges for students.
As closure drew closer the number of events held reduced dramatically. Events during the period
included the Furniture Trade Expo, Lifeline Bookfest, IGA event, Aquinas College hospitality training,
midyear caravan clearance sale, University exams, Griffith University workshops, Annual Gold Coast
Show, Braveheart Highway Thunder, Coomera AFC presentations, Gold Coast Reptile Expo and 22
Harness Racing events.
Public and staff safety was a major focus with reviewed risk assessments for the Gold Coast Show
including an improved audit process. These reviews included Hendra virus procedures, food and
electrical safety.
The work force plan around the issue of redundancy payments to staff prior to closure was very
successful and ensured that the venue maintained its full capability for the final events. Staff were
given access to a career advisor who developed resumes and assisted with job applications. All
documents were boxed and stored for future reference and the financial reporting system replicated
to a data centre server to allow access during the account finalisation process. The “memories”
project was completed with a great deal of electronic and some physical items provided to Gold
Coast Library Services for future use, thanks to Paula Becton.
The Racing Industry and local Community groups benefitted from the distribution of assets with a
second hand value of $2,106,840 representing a small but valued legacy for Parklands and the
Commonwealth Games. This was largely due to work undertaken by Cameron Jones and Leigh
Habner from the Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing.
Legal action by the Gold Coast Harness Racing Club against Parklands as part of action against the
Queensland Government was an enormous drain on management resources and contributed
additional costs. The action became both serious and imminent requiring the review of 25 year old
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
records, briefing Solicitors and deflected management focus for a period. Chub, Parklands insurers,
accepted the claim as valid under the policy. The action forced Trustees to allocate $1,250,000 into a
contingency fund held by Clayton Utz. The funds were subsequently transferred to the Queensland
Government.
Another important on-site income stream, the Indoor Sports Centre, fell into financial hardship due
to additional costs of relocating their operations due to closure. This impacted on their ability to pay
promptly.
Close relationships were maintained with stakeholders including Griffith University (Ian O’Connor
and Ned Pankhurst), Light Rail Project both Goldlinq and MacDow (Phil Mumford and Bruce Miller),
the Gold Coast Harness Racing Club (Barry Grimsey and Wayne Desotto), Racing Queensland (Darren
Condon and Damien Raedler), the Show Society (Lavinia Rampino), on-site horse trainers, Gold Coast
City Council, the Office of Racing (Mike Kelly and Michael Duff), the Office of the Minister for
National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing (Johanna de Winter), Economic Development Qld (
Chris Mills and Ian Hatton), the Office of the Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and
the Commonwealth Games (Hon. Jann Stuckey and Nick Elliott), Gold Coast Bulletin (Peter Gleeson
and Shannon Willoughby) as well as the Indoor Sports Centre and local Politicians both at state and
local levels.
Special mention should go to Nigel Chamier, Chairman of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth
Games Corporation, who always made himself available and Rob Molhoek MP and Cr Dawn
Critchlow who supported Parklands to the end.
I would like to thank the team at Parklands. Everyone worked tirelessly through to the end even
though they were leaving their employment of choice for many years with a great deal of sadness
and emotion. Special note should go to Facility Manager Rod Cameron and his crew as well as my
assistant Vanessa Wobcke and Admin Manager Gail Turner.
I would also like to thank the Trust, Chairman Jim Callaghan and Trustee Susan Forrester, for their
professionalism, talent and support through the challenging closure process and for giving me the
privilege of operating what was one of the most financially successful sport, entertainment and
recreation venues in Australia.
Stephen Sharry
Chief Executive Officer (as at 30 September 2013)
Parklands Gold Coast Trust
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
Governance- management and structure
Organisational structure
Executive management:
Mr Jim Callaghan Chairperson
Ms Susan Forrester Trustee
Mr Stephen Sharry CEO
Management:
Mr Rodney Cameron Facility Manager
Ms Gail Turner Administration
Ms Vanessa Wobcke Admin assistant
Ms Kim McCarthy Catering
Ms Chris Wessman Events Manager
Mr Stephen Ashe Maintenance
Trust
C E O
Facility Manager
Grounds
Maintenance
Administration Catering Events
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
General information
Role
Parklands is a major sport and entertainment facility which was developed in Southport on the Gold
Coast in 1988, and is managed by a Queensland Government Statutory Authority, the Parklands Trust,
trading as Parklands Gold Coast. The Legislative basis under which the Trust was established is the
Racing Venues Development Act 1982. The Trust is Chaired by Jim Callaghan, who is assisted by Trustee
Susan Forrester. The charter of the facility is to manage the land in trust, to provide for Harness Racing,
the Show Grounds Society, Sporting and Community events, music festivals and concerts as well as
functions, conferences and seminars.
Events held at the facility attracted over 400,000 people annually. Those events ranged from the
core operations of Harness Racing held twice weekly, the annual three-day Gold Coast Show and
music festivals such as The Big Day Out. Additionally the Home Show, Caravan and Camping show,
Reptile Show, retirement seminars, Charity Book and clothing sales events, the National Cheer
Leaders Competition Finals, school functions, many business seminars and conferences as well as
functions and weddings are all catered for at Parklands.
Management of the Indoor Sports Centre is commercially outsourced and annually attracts over
100,000 people through its doors and on to its sporting surfaces. The number of community events
include Waitangi Day, Philippine Festival, Brave Hearts and the Lifeline Bookfest, twice per year,
attracting over 47,000 people.
In recognising the changing needs of the Community, car-parking services are also provided for Griffith
University students as the Griffith University grows to be a very important part of the Health and
Knowledge economic development theme of the Gold Coast.
Parklands is situated on over 30 hectares of land only 3km from Southport, 3km from the coast and
8km from Surfers Paradise and is serviced on each side by major access roads. It includes a station
for the light rail project which has commenced construction and is due for completion in 2014. Over
1500 dedicated car-parking spaces are included on site as are five pavilions with over 8000m2 of
undercover space, a grandstand, restaurants, function and conference facilities, two commercial
kitchens, an indoor sports centre, day and race stabling, a 1000m all-weather harness racing track
with broadcast quality lighting, support facilities and fulltime stabling for 60 horses, as well as a
central grassed arena capable of holding 60,000 concert guests. The grounds are supported by an
extensive electrical distribution system, access control system as well as water communication and
security services.
Operating environment
The Parklands facility was scheduled for demolition in October 2013 weeks after the Gold Coast
Show and the last Harness Racing event which was held on Friday 27 September 2013. As the Show
attracts a large crowd and utilises 100% of the capacity of the facility, Parklands was maintained at
100% operational capacity up to and including the end of the last event on site to maintain public
safety and to deliver our responsibility to the event organisers. Users of the Parklands, including the
Show Society, were relocated to another site on the Gold Coast.
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
The management of the closure process has been made more difficult by changes to the closure
process. Originally Trustees tenure was extended until February 2014 to allow for the orderly
disposal of all assets and the finalisation of accounts. This strategy was changed with advice that the
Trust was to be disbanded at midnight on 30 September 2013, and its assets to be gifted to the
Racing Industry and Community groups. The change was as a result of the redevelopment project
being undertaken by Economic Development Queensland and legal advice that it would be
appropriate for the redevelopment to be undertaken without the Trust being in existence due to
land control issues. The scheduling of Harness Racing up until 27 September 2013, three days before
closure, meant that most of the existing assets were required for the last event and could not be
removed until after 27 October 2013.
Despite the reduction in the number of events held on the premises, the facility maintained its
self-funding record. Closure also presented many challenges to the Trustees including a Closure Plan,
staff morale and motivation, accounting treatments and Government liaison. It was important to
maintain the minimum number of experienced staff up until closure to ensure public safety and
venue security. This has been achieved through redundancy provisioning and deeds of release
offers. A Parklands Closure Reference group was formed with representatives from Griffith
University, Office of Racing, Gold Coast City Council, Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small
Business and the Commonwealth Games, Economic Development Qld, Indoor Sports Centre,
Harness Racing and the Gold Coast Show Society.
Car parking competition by the private operator at the Qld Health University Hospital reduced
income significantly.
The Indoor Sports Centre management reported decreasing attendances and increased costs
associated with a relocation plan to another facility.
The general level of events and enquiries has dropped as the awareness of closure increases. The major income streams are music festivals, car-parking, Harness Racing and the Indoor Sports Centre.
The Trust met formally on 4 occasions with a great deal of additional contact during the period.
Non-financial performance
Objectives for the community
Community objectives for the three months leading up to closure were greatly reduced. This was
due to the limited future of the availability of the facility and general awareness on the Gold Coast of
the pending closure.
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
Parklands objectives and performance indicators
Our strategic objectives are:
1. Maintain high quality people, systems, organisational flexibility and governance.
2. Deliver consistently excellent and safe customer experiences with an emphasis on workplace
health and safety at all times.
3. Develop and maintain partnerships and alliances with users and the community.
4. Maximise the use of Parkland Facilities and the economic and community benefit to the Gold
Coast within any capacity and capability constraints caused by closure.
5. Work with Queensland Government to efficiently close the operation and hand over to the
Office of Racing.
Sport 9,000 8%
Gold Coast Show 50,315 45%
Harness Racing 4,400 4%
Commercial 27,000 24%
Community 1,170 1%
Griffith University 19,321 18%
Facilities management
The first quarter of the 2013/2014 financial year saw a reduction in the number of events however
included one of our largest, the Gold Coast Show. The Annual Show always requires the allocation of
a large number of Parklands resources from plant and equipment to staff input.
Commercial, 27,000, 24%
Sport, 9,000, 8% Gold Coast Show, 50,315,
45%
Harness Racing, 4,400, 4%
Community, 1,170, 1%
Griffith Uni, 19,321, 18%
Venue usage
1/7/13–30/9/2013
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
The charges that are levied on the Show Society do not reflect the full cost to Parklands Gold Coast.
Harness training has reduced dramatically with the vacation of the site by on-site stabling. However
as the venue is used by some external trainers and is a back-up during bad weather, the track team
was still required to prepare the track surface daily. Additionally Parklands continued to provide an
alternate venue for Albion Park when race meetings were cancelled.
The decision to allocate assets to Racing Queensland resulted in a great deal of liaison and assistance
being given to Racing Queensland staff. The Parklands team were active in bundling up all loose
tools and assisting with the final removal process. Staff were under enormous pressure with the final
removal taking place over three days. This required staff to be in all buildings to record asset
removal from 6am until late at night.
With a large reduction in car-parking by University students the on-site bus shuttle service was
discontinued and casual car-parking hours reduced. Maintenance economies were continued with
plant equipment repairs completed using parts taken from other equipment and operational
changes made to cope with unserviceable units such as cold rooms.
Governance-risk management and accountability
Risk management
Given the short period until closure (three months) and the reduction in the number of Trustees
from three to two after the departure of previous trustee John Howe, the Risk Committee did not
meet separately and their role was included as part of the general Trust function.
External scrutiny
The Queensland Audit Office appointed audit firm Thomas Noble Russell under the direction of
Partner Geoff Dwyer. Accounting services were provided by BDO under the direction of Partner
Dylan Byrne.
Parklands Gold Coast has not completed its update of the Financial Management Practice Manual to
fully comply with the Financial Performance Management Standard 2009, given the closure of the
facility in September 2013. However the Financial Management Practice Manual is in place and
referred to as required.
There were no significant findings or issues identified by an external reviewer during the three
month period.
Public sector Ethics Act 1994
Parklands does not have its own code of conduct or public interest disclosure policy. It relies on the
‘portfolio’ Department which is the Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing.
Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014
Financial statements
Consultancies During the financial year consultants were employed for a range of activities to assist management.
Category Value Management $ 8,464
Overseas travel
No overseas travel was undertaken during the year.
Remuneration disclosure
The remuneration paid to Trustees under the Part-Time Chairs and Members of Government Boards,
Committees and Statutory Authorities instructions as a D1 classification totalled $18,664.
Recommended