Damian Hale resigns from rugby league club Palmerston Raiders after message leaked
DAMIAN Hale has resigned from rugby league club Palmerston Raiders after a message was leaked showing the former Labor member for Solomon ask the question: ‘Is there really an appropriate way to treat a woman with her top off?’
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DAMIAN Hale has resigned from rugby league club Palmerston Raiders after a message was leaked showing the former Labor member for Solomon ask the question: “Is there really an appropriate way to treat a woman with her top off?”
The NT News this week revealed details of the team’s debauched end-of-season outing held at Darwin strip club Sinsations.
The bar was fined $6200 for the 2017 Mad Monday event which saw a drunk player take his clothes off and attempt to masturbate another man.
Three of the five women on the club’s executive committee have resigned in protest over the way the club handled the fallout from the revelation.
On Wednesday, Mr Hale, who is an alderman on Palmerston council and works for the AWU, sent a Facebook message to members of the club’s executive addressing the wash-up from the front-page story.
“Toppee’s (sic) and strippers are part of the culture of the Top End Executive,” he wrote.
“Is there really an appropriate way to treat a woman with her top off?
“Can we say to our players on mad Monday we don’t drink shooters after a nipple has been dipped in it but every other day of the year at all our major pubs you can?”
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Mr Hale didn’t respond to direct questions from the NT News but in a statement said he would resign from the club’s executive “due to the shortsightedness of some members”.
“My comments were taken out of context and seeking to place unrealistic rules on volunteer players is a total waste of time,” he said.
“All we can do is ask for better standards and to educate men to better respect women.”
One of the women who resigned, who asked not to be named, said she and other women involved with the club had been “bullied and abused”.
The long-time club member said she received abusive messages while she was in hospital giving birth to her child.
It is not suggested that Mr Hale was responsible for any bullying or abuse, or that he sent abusive messages.
Raiders public officer Ross Robinson said the club had asked Mr Hale to resign.
Mr Robinson said the club did not have a “problem with women” and did not sanction Mr Hale’s comments.
He played down the rift between the women and other members of the executive.
“It is a new committee ... there are a lot of different personalities in the club,” he said.
But he acknowledged the existence of “abusive emails” sent to women.
“I haven’t read a lot of the abusive emails. They’re just on Messenger, asking for things to be done, not to be done,” Mr Robinson said.
He said the club had banned Mad Monday and was working to improve the club culture.
Mr Hale’s message referenced an incident last week in which drunk senior players were “pissing on the lawns” of a Raiders coach’s new home.
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Unions NT secretary Joel Bowden said Mr Hale’s attitudes were “reprehensible”.
“Every worker, regardless of the kind of work they’re doing, deserves the utmost respect at all times. If your workplace happens to be in the adult entertainment industry, more respect needs to be shown and intoxication is not and never will be an excuse for bad behaviour,” he said.
Palmerston Mayor Athina Pascoe-Bell said the matter was “between Mr Hale and the Palmerston Raiders”.
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■ Full statement from Damian Hale
“IN REGARDS to comments I made in a private group message addressing the antics of players during Mad Monday celebrations in 2017 and general player behaviour at the club I make the following statement:
I stand by my track record regarding the respect I have for the women in my life and the broader community.
I have worked tirelessly to represent the interests of women to the best of my ability in all the roles I have had in my life.
My comments were taken out of context and seeking to place unrealistic rules on volunteer players is a total waste of time.
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All we can do is ask for better standards and to educate men to better respect women.
Unfortunately there is the way the world is and the way the world should be.
I intend to resign from the executive of the Palmerston Raiders due to the short sightedness of some members and the fact this has found its way from a private message group to the media, without all the other material showing the context of the conversation is evidence of this.
I will leave it to my partner, my daughters, my partners’ daughters and all the women in my life to decide if I respect them or not.
I apologise unreservedly if my comments have offended anyone, that was not my intention but to highlight to my former colleagues how you can’t put rules in around lawful conduct.
I will not be making any further comments on this matter.”
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