Newsagents need strong leadership on Bill Express mess

Mark Hawthorne at The Age today continues excellent reporting on Bill Express and the collapse of OnQ.

We have spoken to the Administrators of OnQ and they have provided a formal proof of debt form. This will need to be completed and lodged with Worrells in advance of any creditors meeting. My view is that OnQ is indebted to my newsagencies for the rebates as documented in Schedule D of the Bill Express agreement.

While there is no money in OnQ, by registering as a creditor newsagents can at least have a voice at the table as the last rites are performed and therefore hopefully be better informed. I will publish an updated example of the form completed later today.

When a creditors meeting is announced I will publish details here along with a proxy form.

Meanwhile, a group of around 20 newsagents yesterday met with representatives of the ANF in Melbourne. Most of the meeting was taken up with Bill Express matters. The difference between the ANF approach and that of the team behind the NSW instituted Class Action was evident. The ANF approach is to negotiate a settlement of the Mobius debt newsagents have been saddled with. The NSW Class Action approach is to challenge the debt on the basis of legal precedent. As I blogged here last week there are precedents worth considering.

The major flaw in the approach the ANF is taking is that it accepts that the equipment rental agreement is separate to the Bill Express agreement. That acceptance leaves the ANF strategy pursuing an outcome which is unacceptable to newsagents. Unless the ANF changes its approach or communicates its reasoning in a more convincing way it will continue to lose members on this issue.

The ANF Directors needs to practically and publicly demonstrate that they will pursue the Mobius agreement issue until the very end and that they will put the needs of newsagents ahead of their own. If they are not prepared to do this they ought to resign. On the evidence so far this year, the Directors of the ANF have not put the needs of newsagents ahead of their own.

My understanding is that the majority of newsagents attending the meeting in Melbourne with the ANF yesterday signed up for the NSW Class Action and not the ANF strategy.