Gunnedah’s business chamber is pushing back against claims it declined to provide evidence of money spent for last year’s abandoned Christmas Fair.
Gunnedah Chamber of Commerce was awarded $5000 by Gunnedah Shire Council to support its hosting of the 2024 Christmas event.
The fair was ultimately cancelled after an earlier postponement due to an unfavourable weather forecast.
Before the decision was made to cancel the event, council said staff had “erroneously advised” the chamber that the funding did not have to be paid back.
Council staff later requested copies of “paid invoices” to show the impact of council’s contribution but were told this was not possible.
“At this juncture, chamber has declined to provide invoices and have cited legal and privacy reasons as the reason for declining this request,” a report to council stated.
Council said the chamber provided evidence of council’s logo on all marketing material up to and after the event cancellation but invoices were not forthcoming.
Chamber of commerce president CJ Baldry Adams said they fulfilled their requirements for the grant funding.
“We provided them a summary and satisfied over and above the expenses in just one month for the $5000,” Ms Baldry Adams told the Gunnedah Times.
In correspondence sent to council in May, the chamber president said more than $9500 was expended on planning, coordination, and marketing of the 2024 Christmas event prior to its cancellation.
She also reiterated how council advised “in a letter” that the $5000 contribution would not need to be repaid as further funding for the 2025 event would not be available.
“We had no reason to question that directive,” Ms Baldry Adams said.
The chamber president said a summary of expenditure was outlined to council including an initial $2500 fee for a “Christmas Fair coordinator” who was to be employed on a contract basis. The full fee for this position was $5000 but the remaining $2500 balance was cancelled by the contractor when the event did not proceed.
A further $3545 was paid for the work completed through to the end of December 2024 to continue to promote the event and the other features through design, collateral, digital and print media.
The chamber said evidence of this work was in the “marketing collateral” provided to council in late 2024 as well as on the chamber’s “social media footprint”. But the organisation stopped short of submitting full invoices.
“In accordance with Australian privacy and commercial confidentiality laws, and in respect of the rights of our third-party service providers, we are unable to provide exact copies of invoices,” Ms Baldry Adams said. “However, all supporting financial records remain on file and can be made available for appropriate audit or compliance purposes, should that be required.”
She later clarified to the Gunnedah Times that providing these invoices could have compromised its business partnerships with contractors. In any event, Ms Baldry Adams said the expenses detailed to council not only exceeded the $5000 grant provided, they didn’t include extensive volunteer hours also involved in the planning process.
“There were further outgoings and expenses, and most importantly, there was a significant toll in volunteer time attached the preparation and the duties attached to the cancelling of the event,” she said.
The chamber president said the matter was finalised when council sent the initial letter stating the money need not be repaid.
She said ongoing replies to council were diverting resources away from the organisation’s core mission.
“The administrative burden associated with repeated correspondence on this matter places a genuine strain on our limited volunteer resources, diverting us from our core mission to promote, celebrate, and foster local business growth and regional economic development,” Ms Baldry Adams said.
“This matter was clearly and fairly resolved in council’s letter of December 20, 2024. We consider this matter now finalised and respectfully request that no further correspondence be issued on this subject unless new and material information arises.”
When the matter came before council at last week’s ordinary meeting, council noted the chamber’s refusal to provide copies of “paid invoices indemnifying council’s contribution”.
It was also agreed that future financial assistance be subject to achieving performance steps or the lodgement of receipts and invoices.
Council explained it had a long history of “mutually-supporting” a Christmas event in Gunnedah but the informal process meant there was no written agreement to “fall back on” when negotiations broke down.
The report to council advised written agreements are now being developed for future circumstances.
Councillor Robert Hoddle anticipated the formal agreements could be applied to all community organisations seeking funding.
Councillor Juliana McArthur highlighted a need “to be specific about council’s expectations are” in the future.
Mayor Colleen Fuller reiterated council’s long-standing and productive partnership with the business chamber in Gunnedah.
“We have a good relationship with our chamber and we need to keep that,” she said.
