An issue which is important in the long-term relationship between the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and the Organising Committee for the Atlanta Games (ACOG) has been brought to my attention by SOCOG.

A number of visitors from Sydney are arriving in Atlanta seeking meetings with ACOG officials, sometimes purporting to be official members of SOCOG, the NSW Government, Advisory Bodies to the Government etc. In other instances SOCOG is receiving requests to provide a contact person in ACOG to whom Sydney visitors might address their attentions.

It will be appreciated that ACOG staff are experiencing very heavy demands in the organisation of the Games and meeting their obligations in terms of visits to legitimate members of the Olympic Family - SOCOG being one. Whilst visits by the private sector cannot be controlled, there should be an understanding within Government of this issue.

If Departments, organisations etc wish to be better briefed on Olympic planning they should initially approach SOCOG which has an outstanding library including up-todate materials from ACOG and the detail provided in Sydney's Candidature File and supporting documents. Generally this is more than adequate to understand the planning requirements for the Olympic Games.

An agreement has been reached with the Chief Executive and President of ACOG that SOCOG will direct enquiries (which are considerable) through one or two designated persons within the ACOG organisation and at the same time seek to restrict the extent of contact by other parties from Sydney as best as possible.

ACOG has proved to be extraordinarily helpful and publicly very committed to helping Sydney and accordingly I would appreciate you requesting all agencies within your administration to assist in this matter by directing Government enquiries to SOCOG rather than ACOG.

In the rare circumstances that an agency feels that it is essential to have face to face discussions with ACOG officials after perusing information obtained through SOCOG, travel proposals should be directed to me in the first instance for consideration and co-ordination

John Fahey
Premier