Gillon McLachlan urges parties involved in Hawthorn’s racism investigation to mediate

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is urging parties involved in the Hawthorn racism investigation to sit down for mediation, or the saga could end up in court.

Gillon McLachlan and Alastair Clarkson.

Outgoing AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has urged all parties in the stalled Hawthorn racism investigation to sit down for mediation as soon as possible in an effort to reach a resolution and to ensure the saga doesn’t end up in court.

McLachlan said he understood the cultural sensitivities and privacy matters concerned, but said an impasse that has lasted for eight months needed to be broken.

Asked if he feared the matter could be headed to court if a breakthrough did not come soon, McLachlan said on 3AW: “I don’t think we are there yet.”

“If there is a point where there is a total impasse, then at some point decisions have to be made … but we are not there.”

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan (L) with Luke Hodge (R). Picture: Getty Images

Former Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson has launched a scathing attack on the investigations process and the Hawthorn Football Club over the delays.

Some of the First Nations participants are unwilling to share critical documents with the three former Hawthorn officials at the centre of the allegations.

Clarkson, Chris Fagan and former Hawks player welfare manager Jason Burt have asked to see documents from Hawthorn and will not agree to be interviewed until they receive the information they have requested.

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson

McLachlan said: “We respect the (investigation) process. It is really important that this independent panel gets to the end and I am hopeful people can talk and find a way through.

“It is incredibly difficult. There are incredibly serious allegations and the way this has played publicly has had a huge toll on both sides.”

He admitted the delays were frustrating and taking a toll on those involved.

“It is an independent process and that is challenging,” he said.

“We need to respect cultural safety, we need to respect due process, but it has got to that point, we would love it to get to mediation, we respect the defendants want documentation, people have got to start talking and finding a way through this.

“I understand the defendants are frustrated not getting access to documents. We respect privacy but we are trying to find a way through where the parties can talk and that’s what we need.”

‘CLOSE IT DOWN NOW’: KENNETT WANTS RACISM PROBE ABANDONED

Michael Warner

Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has called for the immediate termination of the AFL’s “disastrous” independent investigation into allegations of racism at the club.

Kennett said the league’s eight-month probe led by Bernard Quinn KC had descended into “farce”and become “a lawyers picnic”.

He believes the claims made against former Hawks officials Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt by past First Nations players must now be “tested properly” in a court of law.

Speaking as a “concerned Hawthorn member”, Kennett declared “there is no way the AFL, the Hawthorn Football Club or any individual should at this stage be paying any compensation to anyone” until all parties had been given the chance to have their say in court.

“The panel has failed. It is going nowhere. To my dear friends Richard Goyder and Gill McLachlan, I say close it down – close it down now,” Kennett said.

“The inquiry was never going to work because it didn’t have the powers of a court, it wasn’t a royal commission, it wasn’t a judicial inquiry.

“It has turned out to be an absolute disaster for those who have made the complaints and for those who have been accused through the story telling …

Jeff Kennett believes the investigation should be shut down. Picture: Jason Edwards

“You have lawyers representing the AFL, the club, the players who have made the accusations, those who have been accused – and now you have lawyers appointed by the four-man inquiry panel and lawyers appointed to handle the mediation.”

Kennett said “the first great failing” of the process came with the leaking of the allegations to the ABC last September.

“Otherwise there could have been a process that dealt with this respectfully and legally,” Kennett said.

The “second major error” came on Wednesday night when Mr Quinn publicly released a statement explaining the reasons for its stalled investigation, Kennett said.

“Like the leaking of some of the elements of the inquiry that Phil Egan did, the statement was released to one journalist only and not to the community,” he said.

“And the details within the chairman’s release were a fundamental admittance of total failure on their behalf.

“This inquiry should be wound up by the AFL commission immediately. The accusations being made must now be properly adjudicated on – and that can only happen in a court of law.

“The courts will decide by jury or by judge whether the accusations are with substance or without.”

The former Victorian premier said he did not understand how mediation could be held “if the facts have not been determined”.

“There is no way, in my opinion, that mediation is going to achieve a thing,” Kennett said.

He said Fagan and Burt were quality men.

Kennett at his last Hawthorn Football Club AGM as president. Picture: Jason Edwards

“In terms of Clarko, I will say this – he has an electric personality,” Kennett said.

“I have seen him explode on many occasions against non-indigenous individuals and if it is said that he made these remarks, the one thing I will say about him is, I don’t believe they were made racially at all.

“They would have been made as part of Clarko’s personality, which was a bit like a latent volcano, which explodes from time to time.

“If people want to judge him for making the comments at all, that’s a different matter, but they should take that to court and have the evidence tested properly …

“Hawthorn is a safe workplace, it has been for years, but it’s a big workplace and if anyone has overstepped the mark, I for one want to know about it.

“But it is not good enough for people to make accusations and then not be prepared to have those accusations tested.

“The four-man inquiry was set up as a result of the AFL wishing to be seen to be doing something quickly, but they didn’t give thought to the fact that the inquiry has no real powers at all.

“Compensation should only be paid when the facts are known – and the facts and the claims have not been contested.

“And if people are not prepared to have the matters tested in a court of law, their accusations fail and no compensation should be paid.

“The very fact that the lawyers representing some of the families have made 18 demands of those they have accused – without establishing the facts – only reinforces that this inquiry is a failure, expensive, going nowhere and should be closed down immediately.”