A BOYCOTT by shareholders forced yesterday’s annual general meeting of the troubled Framlingham Aboriginal Trust to be abandoned on a technicality.
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The Supreme Court will be asked again for direction to help sort out the mess which has left governance of the indigenous community in disarray amidst deep divisions.
Eighteen nominations were received for seven positions on the trust’s committee of management, with an even split between those aligned to ousted long-time administrator Geoff Clark and those aligned to a committee elected at the AGM last December.
Despite the group which turned up yesterday holding the majority of voting shares, only one of them was a Framlingham resident shareholder, thus failing to meet the trust’s constitutional requirements for a quorum of at least four shareholders who lived in the neighbourhood governed by the trust.
It left the trust’s court-appointed receiver-manager Geoff Ridgeway no option other than to abandon the meeting after hearing from several of the 15 people who attended with lawyer-adviser Shayne Daley.
Mr Ridgeway told The Standard later he hoped a Supreme Court hearing could be held next week to get a specific ruling on what constituted a quorum to avoid further repeats of what happened yesterday.
Mr Daley indicated he would ask the judge to consider changing the constitutional clause relating to residency.
The lawyer also hinted some shareholders should look at transferring shares to residents.
In a further twist the boycott faction, which calls itself Framlingham Reform Group, has called for state government intervention by appointing a board with resident representatives.
Spokesman Possum Clark-Ugle had been appointed trust chairman in December, only to find the elections were declared invalid by Supreme Court Justice Ross Robson last month.
Justice Robson found Geoff Clark’s sons, Aaron and Jeremy, had been improperly denied the right to exercise their shareholder voting rights.
Mr Clark-Ugle yesterday declared the majority of residential shareholders decided not attend the AGM to deny the meeting a quorum.
“They said they were not prepared to attend an AGM of the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust where they have an honest and reasonable belief that the shares allegedly held by Geoff Clark’s sons were not properly transferred at any time,” he said.
“They call on Mr Napthine’s government to appoint a board to act as administrator with residential representatives.”
Geoff Clark yesterday repeated his previously-stated complaints about interference by “white people” in Aboriginal governance.
“In Aboriginal politics there needs to be another process so issues like this don’t get to this point,” he told the ABC.
“I think it’s a crying shame white law is suppressing Aboriginal law.
“All we want is people to adhere to proper traditional law - that is where everybody’s entitled to have a say.”
He alleged the trust’s chief executive Mick Fitzgerald misled yesterday’s meeting, but did not give specifics.
Mr Daley, who represented the Clarks in a Supreme Court challenge to last year’s elections, said the yesterday’s attendees were very frustrated and disappointed.
“Proceedings we brought in court were based on the concept ... of taking advantage unfairly and unjustly of your power in the trust.
“We need to review this conduct.
“Clearly the judge needs to consider a mechanism to avoid this residency issue because it doesn’t work — we are in a deadlock situation.
“People who were here today, the voting majority, need to seriously consider whether they take some proactive and preemptive steps to transfer some shares to residents - that’s a matter for them.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tim Bull said he was yet to be briefed on yesterday’s meeting, but revealed police were investigating issues related to management of the trust in 2011 which had initially been probed by the former Aboriginal Affairs Victoria.