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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-13 Daily Xml
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LIV Golf

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:09): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Premier, on the topic of the future of South Australia's contractual arrangements with LIV Golf.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: It was reported late last week in the media that there has been a merger purportedly between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. The truth of the matter, however, is somewhat different. There is no PGA Tour-LIV merger. What there has been is a significant deal agreed between the PGA Tour and the people who own and fund LIV, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Saudi Arabian government.

What is proposed is a new enterprise to be created as some sort of subsection to the PGA Tour, which needs to keep its current organisational structure in some guise as its non-profit status allows for things such as the player pensions. This new organisation, however, is very much for profit and is what the PIF and the European world tour have now combined into.

The combined assets of those three existing organisations, including LIV, will be valued from that point that private investors could then claim stakes in that new company. The PIF will have effectively bought into the PGA Tour and the Saudis will have a seat at the board via the head of the PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Rumayyan is the new chairman of the PIF's combined venture with the PGA Tour and it's everything they wanted from the beginning. They might not own world golf, but they will have a substantial controlling interest in it.

Where does this leave LIV? The former PGA commissioner and part of the deal, the man who was in the room where it happened, says he doesn't expect LIV Golf to continue beyond this year. Greg Norman was not in the room where the deal happened—indeed, it's been reported he was only informed about it less than half an hour before the media conference was held, yet the Premier has gone on ABC radio, assuring South Australians that the contract for the tournaments to continue, he feels, is secure. He has been reported to have been in touch with Greg Norman and others in LIV Golf. As I have just explained to the council, LIV Golf is now not the entity going forward and Greg Norman was not in the room where it happened. My questions to the Premier are:

1. What efforts has he made to ensure the continuation of his pet project of the LIV Golf tournament in Adelaide into the future?

2. Who are the signatories to the current contracts between the South Australian government and LIV Golf?

3. What efforts have been made to ensure that any investment South Australia has made believing that we will have to have put up assets to be used for the next four years for this tournament are not now losses for South Australia?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for her question. I would be most happy to pass those on to the Premier in another place and bring back a reply for the honourable member.

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