By David
Swimming New Zealand has published a “Proposed Staffing Re-alignment” report. You can read the whole thing at the conclusion of this article. I thought this report would be about the staff changes necessary to replace Cameron and Byrne. There is no question that their departure is long overdue. For six years Swimwatch has explained why they need to be replaced. We have even obtained legal reports of possible unlawful behaviour, nepotism and incompetence. However a close reading of the Proposed Staffing Re-alignment Report has convinced me there is no intention of replacing Cameron. In fact the Report seems to be setting the scene for Cameron to stay around until the London Olympic Games. Eighty three percent of those interviewed by Ineson think Cameron is not up to the job. But, for some reason, Swimming New Zealand treats her as an indispensable aquatic deity.
Here is what the Proposed Staffing Re-alignment Report says.
- Cameron’s, General Manager of Performance and Pathways job will be divided into two positions.
- One of the new positions will be called Olympic Campaign Manager and the other the Athlete Support and Development Manager.
- The Olympic Campaign Manager will do everything involved in preparing the team for the London Olympics. After the Games the job will disappear.
- The Athlete Support and Development Manager will be responsible for the non Olympic Games aspects of the High Performance program.
- Regan’s coaching job is being downgraded to the same level as Scott Talbot’s job in a classic piece of Cameron nepotism – promoting her son by demoting the opposition. That’s a real good “One Team” move. I hope Regan’s as mad as hell. I would be.
- Everything else pretty much stays the same, even the frequently repeated line that the new positions will report to Mike Byrne. That most certainly ensures the whole thing won’t work.
The position that the Report is preparing for Cameron is the Olympic Campaign Manager. Just look at the following facts. Existing staff can apply for the job. Cameron will certainly apply. Preference is being given to existing staff. In fact if a suitable existing staff member exists there is no need for Swimming New Zealand to even advertise the vacancy. And so Swimming New Zealand has built a “Berlin Wall” of employment protection around Cameron. Of course they have written the specification and employment rules exclusively to protect and appoint her.
What hold does this woman have over Coulter and Byrne? Is it her family’s access to Sky Sport? There has to be something. They have a Raleigh type loyalty to their Queen. They may find they pay a similar price for their obsession.
It’s all pretty obvious. They have done a deal with Cameron. They will appoint her to run Swimming New Zealand’s London Olympic campaign. In a year’s time, when all that is done, Cameron has agreed to go quietly; no law suits, no financial pain, no punitive Sky Sport reaction, no blood on the floor, no decapitated head preserved by a grieving spouse.
For months, long term swimming people have said to me that Cameron will survive. I have rubbished their pessimism. No foreigner who has spent ten million New Zealand tax payer dollars and has yet to win a world class swimming race could possible survive. No one who is disliked and scorned by eighty three percent of her constituents could continue to be employed. No one who moonlights for her husband’s television channel when she should be doing her job deserves further employment. Anyone who has created the meaningless elitism in a national sport team that she has should have been asked to leave years ago. But I was wrong.
Cameron will survive. In spite of the Ineson Report; in spite of the overwhelming wishes of the membership, Coulter and Byrne have prepared a cushy little $95,000 a year number for her to serve out her time. And it’s a bloody disgrace – it really is.
Here is the “Proposed Staffing Re-alignment Report”. We will be interested to hear what you think.