Israel Folau has the support of influential Australian Christian Lobby in his legal fight against Rugby Australia
As Israel Folau’s GoFundMe campaign passes $550,000 it can be revealed who many of those donations have been made by and what the former Wallaby did to garner their support.
Israel Folau has the backing of the influential Australian Christian Lobby in his legal fight against Rugby Australia, and was a surprise guest at the organisation’s fundraising dinner in Melbourne last week.
The sacked Wallabies star met with ACL managing director Martyn Iles, who presented Folau with a bound book featuring 46,000 signatures from members who are supporting his multi-million legal battle against his former employer.
As Folau’s GoFundMe campaign surpassed $550,000 in pledged donations to cover his legal bills, it can be revealed many of those donations have come from ACL members he mingled with a dinner on June 13.
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Iles could not be reached for comment on Saturday, however he posted a video on the ACL’s Facebook page claiming a media conspiracy over the rugby player’s predicament, having had his $5 million contract terminated after posting Biblical material deemed homophobic and a high-level breach of the professional players’ code of conduct.
Folau, who is attempting to raise $3 million for his legal expenses, was slammed at the start of the week for a sermon at his church last Sunday describing transgender children as the work of the devil.
“Going over what the media has said, that this is a homophobic slur, that it targets transgender youth, it’s not an accurate characterisation of what he’s trying to say at all,” Iles said.
“But notice first the co-ordinated nature of what happened, it’s across all outlets; News Corp, Fairfax, the TV outlets, all the rest. It’s multi-platformed; print, audio, video.
“It’s synchronised. Everyone said it at the same time, on the same day. It’s carefully messaged, every headline was similar. So Israel Folau’s sermon was of a particular nature, but every headline said that it was of another particular nature.”
Aside from speaking to shock jock Alan Jones, Folau has largely used social media and a public relations firm issuing press releases to communicate publicly.
The money already pledged for Folau – who is seeking $10 million from RA through the Fair Work Commission, an amount that could send the game broke – has stunned and angered many in the community.
However, one donor, Kiwi Brendan McNeill, explained why he felt compelled to give $1000 to Folau’s cause.
“This goes much further than Israel Folau’s issues with Rugby Australia, the bigger question is, ‘Are we allowed to have free expression and free thought, or are we going to have our thinking governed for us?’” McNeill told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Some people say it is hate speech. Well, let’s say it is. The alternative to hate speech is controlled speech, and if we’re going down that path then who is doing the controlling and what are the sanctions?
“We’re moving to a totalitarian system.
“If we don’t allow people to express bad ideas, or ideas we don’t agree with, eventually one of our ideas will be seen as bad. Will it then be acceptable to be silenced?”
McNeill also took umbrage at critics who say donations to Folau should be going to other fundraisers for dying children.
“How do they know we haven’t donated to them? That’s a disgrace, the people giving to Folau are probably the exact ones who feel moved to donate to those other areas,” McNeill said.
“People all about the ‘Whataboutism?’, ‘What about this?’ ‘What about that?’ perhaps they would like to give donations to those children with cancer and challenge us to match it.”
One of the cancer-sufferers on GoFundMe is two-year-old Marko Magic, who needs $350,000 for an experimental trial in New York that could save his life, but so far is $200,000 short.
Marko’s father Andrea told Nine that it was difficult to raise such money without having the high profile or media attention of Folau.
“GoFundMe was a place where we can reach a lot of people, common folk don’t have that much publicity,” he said.
“That was our only chance to give Marko a chance for life … to give him the best possible treatment that we as parents can give.”
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