Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis has told ABC Radio on Thursday it was \u201clooking unlikely\u201d that LIV Golf would go ahead in 2027, but is remaining hopeful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Koutsantonis\u2019 take comes amid news Kooyonga Golf Course, which is set to host the 2027 LIV Golf tournament in March, has filed a motion with the US Bankruptcy Court seeking confirmation by November 6 whether LIV will proceed with its agreement to hold the event.<\/p>\n
The club was also seeking LIV to \u201ccover the projected costs the club will incur to meet its obligations under the agreement\u201d including out-of-pocket expenses and booking costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have taken the step of filing a motion seeking these protections because under Chapter 11, a company can otherwise take a long time to decide whether to continue with its existing agreements,\u201d the Kooyonga statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur support for the event hasn\u2019t changed. We want to see the event go ahead at Kooyonga.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, LIV Golf filed a Chapter 11 petition in New Jersey to \u201cpreserve the company\u2019s business\u201d after it lost its financial backing from Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF).<\/p>\n
After four years of hosting the tournament at Grange Golf Course, the event was set for a one-off at Kooyonga Golf Course in 2027 before moving to the $45 million redeveloped North Adelaide Golf Course from 2028.<\/p>\n
SA Greens leader Robert Simms told InDaily that the \u201cbusiness case for the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment is in tatters\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can the government justify spending millions of dollars to redevelop a golf course for a tournament that they say is unlikely to go ahead?\u201d Simms said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith South Australians struggling with rising cost of living and inflation, why not spend this money on relief for those doing it tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide City Councillor Keiran Snape said the treasurer\u2019s comment was \u201cnot unexpected\u201d, and that the state government\u2019s \u201chouse of cards\u201d was collapsing.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I\u2019m calling on [Premier Peter] Malinauskas to apologise to the people of South Australia for the destruction of Possum Park, and immediately halt any further tree felling for the Golf Course redevelopment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Koutsantonis said \u201cKooyonga is right to be asking these questions of LIV\u201d and defended the North Adelaide redevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can just reassure taxpayers that we don\u2019t pay anything to LIV in advance. We only pay once the tournament has been successfully staged, so we pay in arrears,\u201d Koutsantonis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the tournament doesn\u2019t go ahead, we won\u2019t be paying anything. So taxpayers are protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the government\u2019s been working very hard to make sure that we\u2019ve got a replacement with the Australian Open, men\u2019s and women\u2019s, coming over the next six years to South Australia. That\u2019s a good outcome to replace LIV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Premier Malinauskas said the state government continued to monitor the situation \u201cvery closely\u201d but admitted it was a \u201cfifty-fifty\u201d proposition to go ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201c[LIV] continue to advise us through officials that they\u2019re determined to be here next year,\u201d Malinauskas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this is going to drag on infinitum though, because ultimately if it goes ahead there needs to be a degree of certainty at some point and I think that\u2019s something we have to get resolved in the next month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state government announced that the men and women\u2019s Australian Open golf championships would be hosted at the North Adelaide Golf Course from 2028, with construction beginning in April this year which included the removal of 585 trees.<\/p>\n
On Thursday afternoon, Federal Court Judge Natalie Charlesworth will hand down her judgement in the high-profile case over the $45 million taxpayer funded golf course.<\/p>\n
Charlesworth will rule on proceedings brought by public servant Edwin Kemp Attrill and Kaurna traditional owner Janette Milera against the state government, about whether the plans should have been referred to the federal environment minister.<\/p>\n
Kemp Atrill and Milera\u2019s lawyers argued the plans should have been referred to the minister to test the project against the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).<\/p>\n
The state government, represented by lawyer Alison Doecke KC, argued the project did not meet the threshold for referral to the Federal Environment Minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis has told ABC Radio on Thursday it was \u201clooking unlikely\u201d that LIV Golf would go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-912145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}