Motorcycling Australia Update
January 30, 2025
On December 19, 2024, Motorcycling Australia (MA) had scheduled a Special General Meeting (SGM) between representatives from all State Controlling Bodies (SCBs) and MA as part of the Motorcycling Improvement Initiative to seek endorsement of a new modern MA Constitution.
The project was led by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC). All SCBs were invited to participate, with most accepting the offer to varying degrees.
Two days prior to the scheduled SGM on December 19, MA received additional feedback from an SCB which required further oversight, review and consideration from the ASC, MA and relevant legal teams. These proposed changes were largely accepted by MA on December 18 and recirculated to all SCB Boards for final review ahead of the scheduled meeting and vote on December 19.
At the December 19 meeting, the majority of SCBs declared their preference not to move to a vote due to insufficient time provided to review the changes that were requested in the days prior.
MA understood the late changes from the SCB meant that not all Boards were confident in endorsement without time to thoroughly review. To that end, the ASC and MA recirculated the revised MA Constitution for all SCBs to review in the days that followed and ahead of the final Constitutional endorsement now scheduled for the January 30.
It was also understood that the version of the Constitution distributed with the SGM invitation was the final one to be voted on. On January 26, the ASC and MA received additional feedback from Motorcycling Tasmania, Motorcycling Victoria, Motorcycling Western Australia and Motorcycling New South Wales with further amendments around the proposed new MA Constitution.
The MA Board met on January 28 and reviewed the requested amendments. While some amendments were unable to be changed due to governance requirements, others were accepted. To avoid any additional delays, the amended MA Constitution was recirculated to all SCBs on January 30.
The MA Board is certain that all SCBs now have the confidence to endorse the new MA Constitution based on:
• The new modern MA Constitution is based on best practice ASC governance principles, consistent with the Corporations Act and has the sole purpose of driving our sport forward;
• SCBs being involved in the working group to develop the proposed MA Constitution;
• SCBs meeting with the ASC independently to review the document; and
• SCBs having their Board and legal teams review the document on multiple occasions.
The intention of MA is to continue with the Special Meeting on January 30 seeking endorsement of a new MA Constitution. A further update will be provided after that meeting.
Roy Chamberlain
President
Motorcycling Australia
Editor’s footnote – Some events in Victoria that were scheduled for early February have already been cancelled or postponed due to the inability to obtain permits from M.A. until the aforementioned matters are resolved.
