The roof may have blown off WIN Stadium two years ago, but the NSW government is still trying to keep a lid on what happened and who was responsible.
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On the afternoon of September 20, 2011, the roof of the newly constructed western grandstand buckled in strong winds.
Two days later, the then Sport and Recreation Minister Graham Annesley confirmed an assessment was under way to determine the cause of the incident but in November last year, he said responsibility for the report rested with Minister for the Illawarra Greg Pearce.
With Mr Pearce now sacked and Mr Annesley recently resigned, the trail of information about the stadium investigation has gone cold.
Spokespeople for the current Finance Minister, Andrew Constance, and Minister for the Illawarra, John Ajaka, both told the Mercury they were unable to comment on what actions the government had taken since the stadium incident occurred.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance and Services, Melissa Bell, confirmed "a number of reports have been done" but would not answer questions about who completed the reports or if they would be released.
She said the matter would be subject to legal action, but could not say when it was likely to come before the courts or where the cases would occur.
‘‘It’s all going to be subject to litigation, so there’s no further detail I can provide you with,’’ Ms Bell said.
Mr Constance’s office sent a one line statement saying: ‘‘As this matter will be the subject of legal proceedings, the NSW government will not be commenting.’’
Keira Labor MP Ryan Park said the secrecy surrounding the stadium incident was unacceptable, and urged the government to release the outcome of any investigations as soon as possible.
‘‘The community have every right to know that this process is to be handled transparently, as well as what went wrong, why it went wrong and how it’s going to be fixed in the future,’’ Mr Park said.
‘‘I understand that there might be a legal process, but that certainly doesn’t stop the fact that general lessons could have been learnt about this.
‘‘There’s obviously some things that have happened in terms of either the project management or the construction itself, and I think that information – given this is taxpayers’ money – is something that should be made public so that all of us can get a better understanding of what went wrong.
‘‘We also need to make sure these things don’t happen again.’’
However, Kiama MP Gareth Ward said he thought two years was a reasonable amount of time because the matter would be subject to an insurance claim.
‘‘Obviously the stands have been repaired and re-erected and I look forward to the government getting on with any steps it needs to take to recover money owing because of any potential negligence that may have occurred,’’ Mr Ward said.
‘‘It’s an insurance case and these insurance cases are notorious for running for a very long time.’’
