Israel Folau: Garry Burns loses anti-discrimination bid due to conduct
A gay rights campaigner trying to take former Wallaby Israel Folau to the Anti-Discrimination Board has been turned down after he wrote “intemperate” emails.
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Gay activist Garry Burns has lost his bid to take Israel Folau to the Anti-Discrimination Board for vilifying homosexuals after he described the former Wallaby’s solicitor as acting “like some limp wrist pansy”.
In a series of emails, the high-profile campaigner also told the solicitor: “If someone said “boo” to you you’d wet your Calvin’s ... If you think I‘m easily intimidated by you and your fat cat lawyers think again.”
As he mocked Folau as “Israel Falafal”, in one email to the solicitor he said: “Dear [the Solicitor], you‘ve carried on like a incongruous imbecile throwing Gloria Swanson tantrums. Well you are not getting any Oscars from me.”
In another he wrote:
“[If the Solicitor] wants to carry on like some limp wrist pansy … give the poor darling a Valium or a Bex Powder.”
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal has today rejected Mr Burns’ application to take his case to the Anti-Discrimination Board after finding he was only doing it to get some funds to pay a $82,000 legal bill run up in another legal fight against former Katter Party candidate Tess Corbett and others for comparing homosexuality to paedophilia.
In the latest chapter of the Folau saga since his statements about what he believed the Bible said about same-sex marriage and homosexuality led to his sacking by Rugby Australia, tribunal principal member Anne Britton said it was arguable that his comments “had the capacity to incite hatred towards, serious contempt for homosexual people on the ground of their homosexuality”.
Among the comments complained of by Mr Burns was Folau’s social media post quoting 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “WARNING Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolators HELL AWAITS YOU. REPENT! ONLY JESUS SAVES”.
Ms Britton said she was refusing Mr Burns leave to take the case to the Anti-Discrimination Board because of the “egregious nature of Mr Burns’ conduct” which she found amounted to an abuse of process.
She said he had also threatened members of the Anti-Discrimination Board.
“Of particular concern are the series of thinly veiled threats made to the president and officers of the board that if the complaint were to be dismissed Mr Burns would publicly declare that the president was “aiding and abetting” the unlawful vilification of homosexuals,” Ms Britton said.
“Also of concern is the disrespectful, intemperate and hectoring tone of many of the emails sent by Mr Burns to the board together with his failure to comply with the board’s request to maintain confidentiality throughout the investigation.”
Folau had opposed the application. The name of his solicitor was not revealed in the judgment.
Folau’s solicitor George Haros, who it is understood to be the lawyer targeted by Mr Burns, said they were pleased the matter was over.
“We are understandably pleased with the tribunal’s decision and that this matter is now concluded,” Mr Haros, the principal lawyer with DWF Australia, said.
The tribunal said Mr Burns had in February this year also written to Folau’s then-employer, the Catalan Dragons club in the English Super League:
“Garry Burns has no right to judge others so why does your recruit feel it‘s perfectly OK to discriminate and vilify others using religion to legitimise it“ and ”have a chat to your client and lets settle the proceeding”.
He described Folau’s church as “pernicious” and an “obscure fundamental church group.”
On the day his complaint was initially accepted to be investigated by the board, Mr Burns launched a GoFundMe campaign he called “The Garry Burns fighting fund” to help “me in my fight against vilification of LGBT people and other minority Australians.”
“This important work is in the public interest – but it is difficult and expensive for an independent activist to undertake.
“I am currently taking legal action against sacked footballer Israel Folau over various anti-gay comments, including bracketing gay people with criminals (thieves) and other undesirables, such as perverts.”
Ms Britton said Mr Burns has said he had been affected by a medical condition which accounted for his outbursts. He had also dropped his claim for compensation from Folau, saying he only wanted an apology.
“Many of the comments contained in the series of emails he sent to the Solicitor were churlish, offensive and personally insulting. His actions in contacting the Catalan Football Club demanding that it encourage its “new recruit” to “settle the proceeding” was reprehensible,” she said in her judgment.
“Further, I find that his conduct in threatening the Board and the President and failing to comply with the request to maintain confidentiality amounted to an abuse of process.”
Folau won an out of court settlement against Rugby Australia for his sacking.
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