Queensland dive boat operator, John Heuvel, is laying claim to the idea of bring Oprah Winfrey to Australia and is planning to file a suit against the Tourism Australia.

Reef Encounter managing director Heuvel claims he was the one who came up with the idea and spent $200,000 pitching the proposal beginning 2004. He claims that the former managing director of Tourism Australia, Scott Morrison, promised him that he would not be shut out of any deal to bring Winfrey to Australia.

“Scott Morrison promised me that I would never get cut out of the deal. Not only did I get cut out of the deal, but Tourism Australia is saying that it thought up the idea, which is ludicrous,” Heuvel told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I came up with the idea in 2004.”

Heuvel said he stumbled upon the idea in 2004 while attending a motivational seminar.“As a goal I wanted to set something really high and it was a choice of riding the space shuttle, but that was a bit selfish; and [then] I thought Oprah Winfrey just gave away 450 cars [and] it was the biggest story on the globe,” he said.“I thought, what a great idea it would be to have Oprah Winfrey come out and do a show at the Great Barrier Reef.”

Tourism Australia spent $3.5 million to make the Oprah visit happen in December in addition to contributions from state governments and flights from Qantas for the show’s audience and staff.