NSW: NRMA pre election board war escalates

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-1999
NSW: NRMA pre election board war escalates

By Anthony Stavrinos and Jim Hanna

SYDNEY, Aug 14 AAP - The pre-election war between rival factions on the NRMA board
escalated today with besieged director Ian Yates and president Nick Whitlam engaging in a
public slanging match.

Mr Yates's Motorists' Action Group (MAG) faction is opposed to plans by Mr Whitlam's
Members First faction to demutualise NRMA's insurance arm.

Yesterday, the boards of NRMA Ltd and NRMA Insurance Ltd resolved to remove Mr Yates from
all boards and committees within the group.

Mr Yates made strong suggestions today that Mr Whitlam had attempted to oust him because he
had something "to cover up".

But Mr Whitlam publicly rejected Mr Yates' accusations, saying that the decisions were made
by board members present at an emergency meeting he had called yesterday.

Mr Yates said the decision to have him removed was due to his stance on the demutualisation
issue.

"You have to wonder why Whitlam is going to such extreme measures to silence me," he said.

"If there were nothing to cover up he would not have reacted in the way he did.

"The move to remove me from the board of NRMA is just another attempt to shut me up. But I
will not be silenced."

He said he was being vilified for his attempts to expose great waste and mismanagement
within the organisation.

Mr Yates claims that in February 1997 the NRMA board made a decision to sell shares held in
two Australian Stock Exchange-listed companies and then made "a $50 million loss" in the
trade.

"The board made a good decision to sell the shares, which should have realised, in my
opinion, about $140 million," he told AAP yesterday.

"They ended realising $85 million 14 months later."

Mr Whitlam rejected the accusations, saying that the "loss" was a figment of Mr Yates's
imagination.

"We have had the most extensive inquiries into this matter, spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars," Mr Whitlam told AAP.

"More inquiries showed no impropriety, no mismanagement whatsoever. They show that we made
a profit.

"In his fixation on this matter he has denigrated and intimidated staff, not just top
management. He's defamed staff. His behaviour has been intolerable."

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KEYWORD: NRMA NIGHTLEAD

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