A Campbelltown councillor caused a stir tonight when he called for property tycoon Lang Walker to be replaced as business ambassador for the United for Macarthur A-League bid.
Cr Ben Moroney chose his words very carefully when he tabled a motion regarding Mr Walker, the executive chairman of Walker Corporation.
“While Mr Walker has done nothing wrong, I think that looking to the future it is inadvisable that he should be in that role,’’ Cr Moroney said at tonight’s council meeting.
“We have to remember that property is council’s core business.
“I think we should write to him, thanking him for his services and informing him of council’s wishes.’’
That won’t be necessary because Cr Moroney’s call was defeated 13-1 when put to the vote.
Some councillors were upset at the timing of his call, just days before a submission of interest is due to be lodged by the United for Macarthur A-League bid.
“The timing of this is sad,’’ said veteran councillor Meg Oates.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“We should be sticking together in trying to do this, bring a local football team to Campbelltown and Macarthur and we’re doing it for our kids.[/social_quote]
“It will be such a wonderful thing if we win the bid to have our own A-League team right here,’’ Cr Oates said.
Cr Darcy Lound, who is also a senior official of the Macarthur Football Association, said council had done due diligence before appointing its bid ambassadors.
“And it’s not as if Mr Walker will be remunerated,’’ he said.
“He will be doing this for nothing.’’
Mayor George Brticevic also defended Mr Walker’s appointment and pointed out Walker Corp did not own any land in Campbelltown.
“We are confident in our staff and the probity they provided regarding this,’’ he said.
Cr Brticevic said he was confident the United for Macarthur A-League bid had a good chance of success when Football Federation Australia (FFA) made its decision on where to expand the round ball game.
“We don’t know how many other bids in total there are, but I can tell you we are the only bid that has a stadium.’’
As a Rugby League fanatic I believe that that Soccer has a great future with the growth of the fact that over half of our community has overseas parenting and now that the future of the MacArthur community is in its final stage of completion we need to provide for every sports fan and I look forward to seeing the MacArthur Rams in the A league