Musician James Morrison put his name to an application for $16 million in taxpayer funds within months of receiving $550,000 without an application
The former Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill (left) and James Morrison (seated) at the opening of the James Morrison Academy of Music in March 2015. (Source: James Morrison Academy via Facebook)
I. MORRISON ASKS FOR HALF A MILLION
The government department responsible for awarding $500,000 from a South Australian regional development grant scheme to musician James Morrison in 2015 holds no records of a formal project application having been made for the funding.
An expansion of South Australia's Regional Development Fund was announced on June 3, 2014, by the former Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, and Regional Development Minister, Geoff Brock, as part of a scheme to "drive economic growth and productivity by investing in regional infrastructure, creating jobs and new opportunities for regional South Australia," according to a State Government media release.
Applications for the Regional Development Fund were overseen by the Department of Primary Regions and Industries South Australia (PIRSA).
The South Australian Government has stated that the $500,000 grant to Morrison was to help him establish his private company, the James Morrison Academy of Music Pty Ltd—a company registered in New South Wales—which opened in March 2015 in Mount Gambier, South Australia, in partnership with the University of South Australia (UniSA). Documents released previously under freedom of information law have shown the funds were awarded to Morrison against internal government advice that "providing start-up funding for a private enterprise establishes precedent and crown risk".
Others wishing to apply for SA Regional Development funding were expected to submit applications to PIRSA.
The funds were awarded to Morrison three months after a business associate of his, chartered accountant and businessman Richard (Rick) Allert AO, requested and was granted a meeting with the Premier's Chief of Staff, Dan Romeo. Four days later, Allert sent a letter to Premier Weatherill directly requesting $500,000 of "seed funding" on Morrison's behalf.
Allert is Chairman of Kakadu Tourism, Indigenous Business Australia and a Director of Genesee & Wyoming Australia, having previously been Chairman of Coles Myer and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, among other companies. Questioned last year as part of the Banking Royal Commission, Allert appeared to blame AMP clients receiving negative returns on their superannuation accounts in his capacity as a director of AMP Superannuation Limited, a role he stepped down from in May 2019.
Brock—who oversaw Regional Development Fund applications made to PIRSA in his capacity as Minister for Regional Development—has previously said that "all due diligence" relating to the $500,000 Morrison grant "would have been done away from [him] as Minister", and refused to state whether Morrison applied for through the process required of other regional businesses. “I can only assume so,” he said in a July 2019 interview, “every application goes through a process, and those applications were assessed by an external group.”
In the wake of South Australia's March 2014 state election returning a hung parliament, Premier Jay Weatherill and the South Australian Labor Party were reinstalled only after Brock, then an Independent MP, decided to back Labor, with his support deciding the election. Brock was then given the opportunity by Weatherill to serve as Minister for Regional Development.
Geoff Brock, then the Minister for Regional Development, speaking at the opening of the James Morrison Academy of Music in March 2015. (Source: James Morrison Academy via Facebook)
In a speech at the official opening of the James Morrison Academy of Music in March 2015, Brock asserted he “had first heard of the project when Dale Cleves knocked on his motel door with a bottle of red wine on his first visit to Mount Gambier [in April 2014]”, as reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), joking: "Dale, you were certainly very convincing.” Brock has denied any connection between his meeting with Cleves and Morrison receiving regional development funding.
Cleves, a South Australian musician and businessman who resides in Mount Gambier, is the founder of Generations in Jazz, a thirty-year-old school music event that is hosted in part at his function and accommodation venue, The Barn Palais. The Barn Palais has been a beneficiary of Generations in Jazz—an organisation that was approved for charity status in 2016 by the federal charity regulator—through the business being subcontracted to provide catering for the event. Cleves and Allert have maintained a close friendship for over four decades, according to previous public statements from both men. Allert officially opened the $2m in extensions made to Cleves’ business in 2010, while he was the Chairman of Tourism Australia.
Morrison's involvement with Generations in Jazz has spanned over three decades, as has his friendship with Cleves, with Morrison telling a journalist in 2010 that he and Cleves became friends "in four minutes flat" when they met in 1968. As Allert wrote his letter to the Premier of South Australia seeking taxpayer funds on Morrison's behalf, he was a member of the board of Generations in Jazz—along with Cleves and Morrison—having taken on the role in 2010.
Richard (Rick) Allert AO at the Banking Royal Commission in 2018.
Records held by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show that five months after Allert sent his request letter to the Premier, Allert was appointed as a director of the James Morrison Academy of Music Pty Ltd. Cleves was appointed as a director one month later, in January 2015.
In November 2019, Morrison told The Age that his Academy would be ceasing to accept enrolments for his three-year Bachelor degree music program due to federal funding arrangements, though he did not specify the nature of those arrangements. The three-year program was first offered in partnership with the University of South Australia in 2016.
Funding available through the 2014/15 SA Regional Development Fund was divided into several application categories including "major projects", "community infrastructure" and a "small grants program". In a November 15, 2019, response to a freedom of information application, PIRSA did not identify which grant category applied to the $500,000 given to Morrison.
The response provided by PIRSA stated the only documents held by the Department relating to the James Morrison grant were a 9-page business plan, along with the 2-page letter from Allert directly requesting $500,000 from Premier Weatherill on Morrison's behalf. Access to the business plan was refused by PIRSA on the basis that it would be "contrary to the public interest."
Asked to again confirm that the Department held no record of a formal application for funding having been made by Morrison for the $500,000, a representative for PIRSA stated on November 22, 2019: "...further document searches have been undertaken and I advise that Primary Industries and Regions SA does not hold any further information relating to an application made by the James Morrison Academy of Music."
Additional documents released by PIRSA show that 4 weeks before the doors to the Morrison Academy opened—after the Academy had begun accepting student applications and enrolments—the South Australian Government had not finalised the details of their contract with Morrison outlining conditions for the funding. The contract was finalised on February 24, 2015, just seven days before the Academy's opening, and signed by Morrison and Allert.
Morrison had sent his invoice to Arts South Australia three weeks earlier, on January 29, 2015. The total was $550,000—the grant of $500,000, plus $50,000 in GST—to be paid in two instalments, corresponding with two financial years throughout 2015.
James Morrison did not meet several of his contractual obligations to the South Australian Government in return for the funding, failing to reach targets for student enrolments and not providing community services agreed upon in the contract, including short music courses and music camps. His Academy also struggled to attract enrolments from female students, with only 11 female students enrolling in the past three years, compared to 62 male student enrolments over the same period.
In April 2016, the federal government awarded the James Morrison Academy $152,112 from the “Catalyst” Art Fund to support a music tour to the United States after the Academy had been operating for just thirteen months.
*
James Morrison and Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill at the opening of the James Morrison Academy of Music in March 2015. (Source: James Morrison Academy of Music via Facebook)
II. A FUND WITHIN A FUND
PIRSA also admitted it holds no records of the recipients of a further $250,000 in regional development funding that was announced in connection with the $500,000 Morrison grant, which Minister Brock stated would go to "regional arts and cultural projects".
Documents released by PIRSA under freedom of information law show Brock and Jack Snelling, then South Australia’s Minister for the Arts, organising and agreeing to an "intra-departmental transfer" of $750,000 from the Regional Development Fund to Arts South Australia to create what they referenced as a new fund altogether, the "James Morrison Academy of Music and Regional Arts and Cultural Initiatives (the Regional Arts Fund)", between December 8, 2014 and February 5, 2015. The $250,000 in the “Regional Arts Fund” was to be "allocated at [Snelling's] discretion", Snelling wrote in a February 5 letter to Brock.
In their November 2019 response to a freedom of information application, PIRSA stated it "[did] not hold any documents" related to the $250,000 in funding, writing: "it is suggested you should approach the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to seek this detail."
The Department of the Premier and Cabinet provided a list of funding recipients that included the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Cabaret Fringe, Alexandrina Council, and three grants to Country Arts SA, but did not specify how the funding had been allocated, or the value of each grant.
Another letter from the Chief Executive of PIRSA at the time, Scott Ashby, shows Brock signed off on a portion of the $250,000 being allocated to arts organisations in Ceduna and Streaky Bay on December 2, 2014, as part of a project named "KickstArt", before Snelling had established or made public any regional arts grant application guidelines for the new fund. The decision was announced through Country Arts SA on November 26, 2014, without reference to the source of the funding.
In one letter Snelling noted that the $750,000 in funding was a "Cabinet-approved provision". Cabinet documents do not become available for public access applications until 10 years have passed since their creation.
Other regional grant schemes involving South Australia came under scrutiny earlier this month after the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) tabled a report critical of the $200m Regional Jobs and Investments Packages program rolled out by the Coalition after the 2016 election. The report highlighted that applications had not been assessed in accordance with program guidelines, and that the Ministers involved had approved 17% of applications that had not been recommended to them. The Upper Spencer Gulf region in South Australia was assigned a portion of the federal funding, with $19 million of funding assigned to the state divided between just 9 applicants.
*
Dale Cleves (right) receiving the Order of Australia medal from Kevin Scarce in 2012. (Source: Australian Piano Warehouse)
III. AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
In his July 2014 letter to Premier Weatherill requesting $500,000 for James Morrison, Allert wrote the funding was being sought in part due to a similar music school planned and endorsed by Morrison "facing an uncertain future", implying the uncertainty came from the cessation of a partnership with the University of Adelaide.
That school—the Generations in Jazz Academy—had been planned in the years prior to 2007 by Morrison, musician Graeme Lyall and Cleves, initially conceptualised as an offshoot of the aforementioned high school music event Generations in Jazz that was founded by Cleves over thirty years ago, according to statements from the men given to Mount Gambier-based journalist Graham Greenwood in 2010.
The Generations in Jazz music school opened in 2010 as a partnership between Generations in Jazz Inc. and a Catholic R-12 school in Mount Gambier named Tenison Woods College, and from 2011 onwards, offered Diploma music degrees in an additional partnership with the University of Adelaide. A contract between the institutions released by the University of Adelaide under freedom of information law shows both Generations in Jazz Inc. and Morrison were listed as patrons in the partnership.
Internal communications between University of Adelaide staff from October 2013 to January 2014 show senior management staff expressing uncertainty as to whether the South Australian Government would be scaling back funding for some of their music programs, and concern about the potential of staff layoffs as a consequence. Further emails show management writing to the State Government affirming they hoped to be able to receive funding for Generations in Jazz music students in 2014.
The Generations in Jazz event in Mount Gambier.
In late November 2013, the University of Adelaide was informed the State Government would be cutting funding for its Vocation Education and Training (VET) music programs. On November 26, the Deputy Executive of the SA Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, Craig Fowler, wrote in a letter to the university that his Department "[was] unable to commit to funding the Conservatorium for the delivery of the Certificate III in Music, Certificate IV in Music and Diploma of Music in 2015."
"The Department provides this information well in advance of 2015 in order for you to consider adjusting to this circumstance over 2014," he wrote.
In late 2009, the SA Department of Further Education had written to the University of Adelaide proposing a contract worth $1,112,220 for the University's Elder School of Music to provide accredited vocational education and training music courses between 2010 and 2012, according to a letter released by the University under freedom of information law. Further documents suggest the Government provided funding to the University for VET music courses at a rate of $6848.19 per Diploma of Music student in 2014.
In March 2014, the Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music, Carl Crossin, wrote to the Principal of Tenison Woods College, David Mezinec, stating the University of Adelaide "with disappointment" could no longer continue the Generations in Jazz partnership due to State Government funding cuts to their VET music programs.
Four months later, Allert requested—on James Morrison's behalf—the continuation of VET music course government funding that had been cut from the University of Adelaide.
Morrison offered a new Diploma of Music program at his Academy from 2015 onwards, having approached the University of South Australia to broker a partnership during 2014, allowing him to build on the jazz music program established with the University of Adelaide and open his own private company. Contacted for comment, neither the SA Department of Premier and Cabinet nor Morrison would confirm if the James Morrison Academy received VET music course funding.
The notification of cuts to University of Adelaide music programs came one month after the Mount Gambier City Council was approached with a proposal for the James Morrison Academy of Music, in October 2013, as acknowledged by the previous Acting City of Mount Gambier CEO Judy Nagy. In a written statement, Nagy said that prior to August 2014, planning had been occurring on the JMA proposal not only at the local government level, but “particularly at a (confidential) State Government level.”
One year after the Academy opened, in early 2016, Morrison opened another private company, Morrison's Bar, which has been used to host his own students. For the first year of its operation, the company listed the James Morrison Academy—a UniSA-associated campus—as its principal business address, according to ASIC records. In 2019, Morrison used the bar to host the Generations in Jazz cocktail party. The University of South Australia has not listed any documentation related to approval or planning for Morrison's bar under freedom of information law, or responded to questions about a staff member affiliated with the University being permitted to run a bar hosting its students.
Ten months after Allert sent his letter to the SA Premier in July 2014, Morrison put his name to an application requesting millions of dollars from the same South Australian regional development fund that gifted him $550,000, proposing the opening of yet another music school in his name.
The application was submitted in partnership with Tenison Woods College, and listed on a proposed "advisory committee" within the application were Generations in Jazz Inc., the Government of South Australia and the South Australian Department of Education and Child Development.
*
James Morrison AM (left), former Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill (centre) and Rick Allert AO (right) at the opening of the James Morrison Academy in March 2015. (Source: James Morrison Academy via Facebook)
IV. MORRISON ASKS FOR $16 MILLION
Four months after sending his invoice for $550,000 from the Regional Development Fund, Morrison put his name to an application seeking $16 million—including $2 million from the same regional development fund—to open another music school in his own name, the "James Morrison Centre of Excellence".
"The JMCE [James Morrison Centre of Excellence] would complement the James Morrison Academy of Music," the 9-page application reads, "and offer an Early Years to PhD specialisation in music education, performance and teaching with the associated opportunities for staff, students and the international music community that such collaboration would bring."
The application for $16m in funding was submitted after the James Morrison Academy of Music had been open for just ten weeks.
The release of the regional development fund application formed part of PIRSA's November 2019 response to a FOI application and appeared to be an administrative error.
Dated May 22, 2015, the application was submitted by Tenison Woods College Principal David Mezinec, acting on behalf of the Catholic Church Endowment Society. In supporting documents, James Morrison was listed as a contact person for further information.
"The James Morrison Centre of Excellence (Music Education and Performance) will be an international centre for school aged children, early years to year 12, of music education and performance excellence," the project statement reads, with another section stating the application “[had] evolved because of significant community support”.
The Generations in Jazz Academy partnership involving Tenison Woods College, Generations in Jazz Inc., Morrison and the University of Adelaide that, ten months earlier, had been characterised by Allert as facing an "uncertain future" was referenced in the application as being a successful eight-year program worth building upon, with no mention of the University of Adelaide's involvement.
"The success of the Generations in Jazz Academy program over the past eight years offered in partnership [sic] Generations in Jazz Inc. and the evolved success of music education in the school and local community was acknowledged through the NAB Schools First Awards in 2013," the document reads, "when the College [Tenison Woods] was recognised as the national winner for its community partnerships to reconceptualise music education throughout the school and ensure all students could benefit from this critical area of learning."
The Generations in Jazz Academy operated for only five years between 2010 and 2014, closing twelve months after Tenison Woods College and Generations in Jazz were awarded a NAB Schools First award, worth $200,000, in December 2013.
Generations in Jazz Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
The application appears to have been submitted with approval from multiple levels of Government, with several government departments and local councils listed in a proposed advisory committee for the James Morrison Centre of Excellence. In addition to the Government of South Australia, SA Department of Education and Child Development and Generations in Jazz Inc., the proposed committee included the District Council of Grant, the Mount Gambier City Council and the University of South Australia. Another of Morrison's private companies, James Morrison Enterprises, was also listed.
Tenison Woods College Principal David Mezinec. (Source: Tenison Woods Catholic College)
The proposed centre aimed to connect the James Morrison Academy with younger children, with one section of the application reading: "The JMCE would also offer the JMA a substantial well organised and well-resourced vehicle with which the James Morrison Academy could connect with school aged children and adolescents across the world, capitalising on the College's experience in hosting international students, as well as home stay and pastoral care capabilities."
Student safety practices at the James Morrison Academy and UniSA came under scrutiny recently after The Age reported that a James Morrison Academy student charged with rape by South Australia Police was given permission to have his bail adjusted in order to travel to Melbourne to perform on stage and participate in a recording with Morrison. Cleves, Morrison, Allert, Judi Morrison, and Nicholas Hill were on the James Morrison Academy board at the time of that incident.
In a section of the application entitled "Net increase in economic activity", a series of imprecise community benefits were listed before a conclusion that the Centre would yield 30 ongoing full-time positions and an annual state turnover of $20m. "The current close collaboration that UniSA has with Tenison Woods College will be intensified through increased opportunities in music education, teacher education, applied research and community capacity building," read one statement. "Within five years it is anticipated that financially the investment of $16m would eventually yield an annual state turnover of $20m."
Annual Financial Statements for the Archdiocese of Adelaide were submitted with the application, listing Nigel Adams as Chair of Finance for Tenison Woods College, along with the South Australian accounting firm Galpins as auditor, previously hired to provide auditing services for Generations in Jazz Inc. Adams has previously been a member of the board of Generations in Jazz Inc. along with Morrison and is currently a director of Morrison's company International Jazz Day Australia Pty Ltd, which was approved this year for charity status by the federal government. The charity, which has no purpose listed with Australia's federal charity regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, claims to help most subsets of the Australian population including people aged 15 to 65 and over, males, females, people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, the general community in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and people from regional and remote communities.
Chartered Accountant Nigel Adams. (Source: GJ McEachern & Associates)
For a decade, Adams has worked as a chartered accountant at the Mount Gambier accounting and business advisory firm GJ McEachern & Associates, which has served the businesses of Dale Cleves for decades, along with two of James Morrison's private companies and Generations in Jazz Inc., according to records held by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australia's federal charity regulator. GJ McEachern & Associates did not respond to a request for comment.
The SA Department of Premier of Cabinet, Brock and Morrison did not respond to a request for clarification on whether Tenison Woods College or James Morrison were awarded any taxpayer funds as a consequence of their $16 million application for regional development funding.
*