The governance-reform agreement reached between Swimming Australia (SA) and World Aquatics (WA) has been lambasted as "a disgusting power play" and undemocratic by some of the officials present at a meeting in Sydney today.

The process that led to the agreement today was sparked by anonymous complaints to WA about the lack of say some members of the swim community have been aggrieved about and the "monopoly" said to have been held by SA's member organisations the seven states and territories, the Swim Coaches and Teachers Association and the Australian Swimmers Association.

Now, those entities will share power in a new structure of voting rights that grants athletes (20%) and clubs (30%) a half of all votes, and hand a 5% stake to Matt Dunn (or equivalent in international office), the global regulator's Australian Bureau member, who represents the international not domestic federation.

While the leaders closest to the deal emerged "pleased" with the outcome and Swimming Australia issued a positive statement on the path forward, some officials, speaking to News Ltd newspapers on condition of anonymity, were highly sceptical of the agreement and its related process.