The latest shot fired in Collingwood’s board presidency stoush between current president Mark Korda and would-be president Jeff Browne is a complaint lodged with ASIC over Korda’s refusal to hand over the registered members list.
Former Collingwood lawyer Francis Galbally made the request for the membership list on 29 June, accompanied with a cheque for $1,000 to cover the club’s costs.
Under section 173 of the Corporations Act a request for a copy of the register of members of a public company must be complied with within seven days of the request being made.
In response to the request, Korda sent a message out to the members starting: “We aim to protect the privacy of Collingwood members from those seeking to get unspecified access to these personal details.
“Collingwood is not prepared to give out the names of its members to any person, unless the person requesting that information demonstrates the legitimate purpose for that request, as required by the law,” said the message.
It’s alleged that Browne and his supporters were chasing the list in order to recruit support for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to overthrow the current board and install Browne as the new president.
Collingwood has subsequently engaged the services of dispute resolution lawyer Leon Zwier to manage the looming conflict and maintains that despite Zwier’s ordinarily steep fees, he is handling the case for free due to his love of the Magpies.
Galbally told the Herald-Sun that he believes what Korda and Co is doing is unlawful, hence the ASIC complaint.
Galbally said, “The board is doing everything it can to stop members having a vote on who should be a director and govern the club.
“It is thumbing its nose at the democratic rights of members to decide on the composition of the board.
“And the more the club obfuscates and puts up roadblocks the more I am convinced the whole board must go.”