Govt grant delayed

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 36

Govt grant delayed

By

ROBERT LOWE

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

An Australian Government grant to the Australian Rugby Football Union has been delayed pending the union’s decision on whether to tour South Africa, a union official said yesterday. The A.R.U.’s executive director, John Dedrick, said the Government had still not made a decision on the annual athletes award, whereby funds were made available for training and equipment. Normally, a decision on the grant, which last year totalled sAust2s,ooo

($32,000), would have been made by now, he said. The Government had told the union that it would not make a decision until the South Africa issue had been clarified. Mr Dedrick said it was “common knowledge” that any Government funds were specifically excluded from being used, for contacts with South Africa. The Wallabies were issued with an invitation in May to tour the republic next winter. Mr Dedrick said the union had asked for a conference with the Aus-

tralian Foreign Affairs Minister, Bill Hayden, and government officials to discuss the issue, but the Government had not yet set up the meeting. The union’s council is expected to discuss the question of a tour of South Africa at its meeting on October 3. Mr Dedrick said he could not give any indication of the feelings of councillors, and said the issue had not yet been discussed. However, the policy of the union for the past decade was that it would abide by government policy.