NAB scandals, not church, should have disqualified Thorburn from Essendon job

Andrew Thorburn should never have been hired as Essendon CEO – but not for anything to do with his religious beliefs.

Andrew Thorburn should never have been hired as Essendon CEO – not due to his religious beliefs, but because of his scandal-plagued tenure as head of National Australia Bank.

That’s the view of many commentators in the wake of the 57-year-old’s abrupt departure from the AFL club on Tuesday, after just one day in the job.

Mr Thorburn’s hiring was met with widespread backlash after the anti-homosexual and anti-abortion views of his church were thrust into the spotlight, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews – a paid-up Essendon member – blasting them as “absolutely appalling”.

By Tuesday night, Mr Thorburn had officially stepped down from the Bombers to keep his role as chairman of City on a Hill church.

“As soon as the comments relating to a 2013 sermon from a pastor at the City on a Hill church came to light this morning, we acted immediately to clarify the publicly espoused views on the organisation’s official website, which are in direct contradiction to our values as a club,” a club statement read.

“The Board made clear that, despite these not being views that Andrew Thorburn has expressed personally and that were also made prior to him taking up his role as chairman, he couldn’t continue to serve in his dual roles at the Essendon Football Club and as chairman of City on a Hill.”

Mr Thorburn said a statement that it “became clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many”.

“Despite my own leadership record, within hours of my appointment being announced, the media and leaders of our community had spoken,” he said.

“They made it clear that my Christian faith and my association with a Church are unacceptable in our culture if you wish to hold a leadership position in society. This grieves me greatly – though not just for myself, but for our society overall.”

Andrew Thorburn resigned as Essendon CEO after one day. Picture: Jay Town

Industrial relations lawyer Josh Bornstein suggested Mr Thorburn may have a legal case against Essendon, noting that “religious belief or activity” is a protected attribute under the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.

“This means that an employer is required not to discriminate against an employee by reason of religious belief or activity,” he wrote – before agreeing with another user who suggested Mr Thorburn should have been disqualified as a “former CEO of a bank that behaved badly as revealed by [the] banking royal commission”.

“The weirdest part of Thorburn is a guy with his record at NAB should never have been in the running for Essendon,” wrote barrister and author Gray Connolly.

“And yet the ‘social crime’ that did Thorburn in was his mere membership at a Melbourne church that shares basic orthodox Christian views on abortion and homosexuality.”

Money ‘fell into NAB’s pocket’

The very brief stint at Essendon was Mr Thorburn’s first role in professional football after resigning as NAB CEO in 2019, when he was savaged by the banking royal commission.

Mr Thorburn along with NAB chairman Ken Henry were singled out for particularly harsh criticism by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne, who said NAB “stands apart” from the big four for failing to learn from its misconduct.

The banking royal commission, which commenced public hearings in February 2018 and handed down its final report 12 months later, revealed widespread misconduct in the Australian banking and financial services sector.

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne singled out NAB. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian

The sweeping final report covered a wide range of predatory practices across consumer lending – such as NAB’s use of unlicensed home loan “introducers” – financial planning and wealth management.

But it paid particular attention to the “fees for no service” scandal.

Along with the other big banks, NAB was caught out charging customers, including deceased ones, ongoing fees automatically deducted from clients’ accounts – in NAB’s case to the tune of more than $650 million.

Appearing on the witness stand, the NAB CEO “sought to portray the charging of fees for no service as a product of poor systems and carelessness”, Mr Hayne wrote in the report.

“It was, in his words, ‘just professional negligence,’” he said.

“I cannot and do not accept this. As I put to Mr Thorburn, his proposition was that ‘this money fell into the pocket of NAB accidentally’. Mr Thorburn’s frank, and inevitable response was, ‘I can’t disagree with that … it wasn’t intended to be ours but it became ours.’”

Mr Hayne said the amounts of money that “just ‘fell into the pocket’ of so many large and sophisticated financial entities, the number of times it happened, and the many years over which it happened, show that it cannot be swept aside as no more than bumbling incompetence or the product of poor computer systems”.

Then-NAB CEO Thorburn leaves the banking royal commission in November 2018. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian

In his closing remarks, Mr Hayne said that having heard from Mr Thorburn and Dr Henry, “I am not as confident as I would wish to be that the lessons of the past have been learned”.

“More particularly, I was not persuaded that NAB is willing to accept the necessary responsibility for deciding, for itself, what is the right thing to do, and then having its staff act accordingly,” he wrote.

“I thought it telling that Mr Thorburn treated all issues of fees for no service as nothing more than carelessness combined with system deficiencies when the total amount to be repaid by NAB and NULIS on this account is likely to be more than $100 million.

“I thought it telling that in the very week that NAB’s CEO and chair were to give evidence before the Commission, one of its staff should be emailing bankers urging them to sell at least five mortgages each before Christmas.

“Overall, my fear – that there may be a wide gap between the public face NAB seeks to show and what it does in practice – remains.”

After the report’s release, Mr Thorburn told the ABC he found the criticism “upsetting and hard to read”.

“I did feel it was harsh,” he said.

“I respect the commissioner’s view, you know, he’s stated that’s his view. I don’t share it, because I feel that we are acknowledging, we are making decisions, actions that are proving that we want to rebuild trust with customers. I feel that the way he’s describing me is the polar opposite of what I want to be and what I am, and the sort of change I’m leading inside the company.”

Within days, both Mr Thorburn and Dr Henry were forced to resign.

Mr Thorburn told a media conference that leadership at NAB “clearly needs to get better”, noting that “we’ve fallen short”.

“I acknowledge that the bank has sustained damage as a result of its past practices and comments in the royal commission’s final report about them,” he said in a statement.

“AS CEO, I understand accountability.”

Church hits back at criticism

In a post on Instagram, City on a Hill founder Guy Mason described Mr Thorburn as a “remarkable leader”, “a man of great character” with “conviction and integrity”.

“It is these very character traits that would have made him a great success at Essendon,” he wrote.

“Despite media grabs and comments from our Premier, City on a Hill has always been about Jesus. Knowing Jesus and making Jesus known is the heartbeat of our church community. Jesus loves all people and is the author of life. He invites all people to experience his love and walk in his life. It is this life and love that guides our church which today welcomes hundreds of people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds … It grieves me when this message is lost, misrepresented or overshadowed, causing pain and hurt.”

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said the “forced resignation” of Mr Thorburn “should concern every single Australian who believes in freedom of speech and thought”.

“Essendon president David Barham has made it clear that Christian views, accepted by millions of everyday Australians, are contrary to the club’s values,” ACL spokeswoman Wendy Francis said.

“The Essendon Football Club is only safe, inclusive, diverse and welcoming if you are not a practising Christian or, by extension, practising Muslim … The treatment of people such as Andrew Thorburn, Israel Folau and the Manly seven is a stark departure from the Australian way of being able to respectfully disagree, whilst defending the right of others to freedom of thought and belief.”

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