Brendon Burns

Christchurch-based pokie trust Eureka is still playing politics with local sports groups, says Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns.
 
Eureka Trust has today issued its grants donations for the year to last November.
 
Although Eureka gave away more than $5m in pokie funding last year, it says in its full page Press ad that it has had to cease funding sport (excluding schools.).
 
Brendon Burns says Eureka’s statements are nonsense on several counts.
 
“First, Eureka’s advert shows it has given away many hundreds of thousand of dollars to sports bodies in the latest grants.
 
“What it is trying to do is maintain a fiction it developed last year. After some of us blew the whistle on the inappropriateness of Eureka generously funding racing stakes from pokie money, it said it could also not fund sport. This was centred on it choosing to define that sport was not a charitable purpose.
 
“Eureka continues playing politics on this point on the basis of narrow and prescriptive legal advice.
 
“It ignores advice such as that from the Minister of Internal Affairs, National’s Nathan Guy who issued a media statement last September headlined, “Sport can still receive gaming society funding.”
 
Brendon Burns says as MP for an electorate with many needy organisations desperate for locally-generated pokie funds, he welcomes the removal of funding for racing stake money in Eureka’s grants statement.
 
“When hundreds of community welfare organisations and sports groups continued to miss out on funding, the case for gambling monies funding gambling could not be sustained. I am more comfortable with local racing clubs continuing to get a modest share of funds as their facilities are also used for a wide range of other activities.
 
“Eureka trustees are not only maintaining a charade about not being able to fund sport in the latest grants statement. They continue to make curious funding decisions, such as again giving generously ($43,000) to the Midland Rail Trust, when most community organisations got fractions of that amount. Midland has received more than $200,000 over the last five years and never missed out.”
 
Brendon Burns says Eureka also continues to advertise for applications for funding, without stating what happened to its plans of last year to merge with the Air Rescue Trust.
 
“I think an organisation with well-paid trustees managing millions of dollars of on behalf of the public need to step up and explain themselves much better than this shambles.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Media Release. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.