Annual Report - Gold Coast Parklands · Letter of compliance 4 Chairman’s report 5 ... Light Rail liaison with Macdow and the Southport reference group was excellent through Chief

Parklands Gold Coast Trust Annual Report 2013-2014

Final Report

For the period 1 July–30 September 2013


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


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: [email protected]

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.

http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/about/corporatedocs/index.html

mailto:[email protected]

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en


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


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


CEO Report 2013/2014


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


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)



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


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.


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 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


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.


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.

Documents

Annual Report - Gold Coast Parklands · Letter of compliance 4 Chairman’s report 5 ... Light Rail liaison with Macdow and the Southport reference group was excellent through Chief