True tolerance includes people of faith: Andrew Thorburn

Andrew Thorburn has warned an individual’s faith can now ‘render a person immediately unsuited to holding a particular role’ after he was forced out as head of Essendon Football Club.

Andrew Thorburn says people have ‘expressed genuine worry for jobs and employment prospects due simply to faith’. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Andrew Thorburn has warned an individual’s faith can now “render a person immediately unsuited to holding a particular role” after he was forced out as the chief executive of Essendon Football Club over a leadership role at his church.

The former NAB boss said on Wednesday night that freedom of thought, conscience, religion and association were “fundamental human rights, explicitly recognised in Victorian law in our ­Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act”.

“It is troubling that faith or association with a church, mosque, synagogue or temple could render a person immediately unsuited to holding a particular role,” he said.

“That is a dangerous idea, one that will only reduce tolerance for others and diversity of thought and participation in our community an

d workplaces. True tolerance, inclusion and diversity also includes people of faith.”

Mr Thorburn stood down from the Essendon post a day after he was appointed to the position after it emerged he was chairman of the City on a Hill church that had posted sermons online warning that acting on same-sex attraction was a sin and likening abortion to concentration camps.

Mr Thorburn said he had received hundreds of messages of support since he stood down as chief executive on Tuesday. People had “expressed genuine worry for jobs and employment prospects due simply to faith”, he said. “I believe that there are many Australians who fear the implications for their livelihoods, aspirations and participation in community life,” he said.

Mr Thorburn’s exit from Essendon sparked a political storm with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and the business community to condemn the Essendon Football Club, arguing there had been an “egregious attack on an individual because of his religious beliefs”.

He cautioned against any return to the 1950s where “you had ads for jobs which expressly said, you know, ‘Catholics and Jews need not apply’” and was supported by a host of Coalition frontbenchers who argued it was imperative to respect the freedom of people of all faiths.

But Mr Andrews warned religious people vying for public roles need to “have a think” about being “more kind-hearted”.

“Aren’t we all God’s children? Like seriously, seriously, there’s no place for bigotry. There’s no place for stigmatising people. There’s no place for conversion therapy. There’s no place for saying to people, ‘You’re broken, there’s something wrong with you. You’re a sin’. That is not appropriate.”

Church leaders defended Mr Thorburn’s right to hold religious views and be chief executive of Essendon.

Cartoon: Johannes Leak

Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne Dr Philip Freier moved to defend City on a Hill’s clergy leader Guy Mason, who he said was a senior leader in Melbourne’s Anglican Diocese. “I have always found (Mr Mason) to be a person who puts God’s unconditional love for all as first in his life and in his interaction with others,” Dr Freier said.

The Anglican faith strongly rejected homophobia and nothing he had seen from Andrew Thorburn’s reported comments “contradicted this position”, he said.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli rang 3AW on Wednesday morning to say he would no longer support Essendon, the team he had adopted when he arrived from Sydney four years ago. “I will be going and looking elsewhere I think. When there is a rejection of so many other people of faith by (Essendon’s) actions, it’s a significant reality,” he said.

“Think of all the families that have now been polarised because around the kitchen table, they hold a belief … they’re going ‘well I believe this, but now my team is saying this is not good’.’’

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby told The Australian that while he did not want to comment specifically on the situation surrounding Andrew Thorburn, there was broader uncertainty in secularising nations about the right of individuals to hold and express their beliefs.

“The underlying issue on this is freedom of religion and belief, and finding the boundaries to that,” he said. Legal experts said Essendon might have unlawfully discriminated against Mr Thorburn. Brand management had beenEssendon’s priority in its handling of Mr Thorburn’s resignation and the club had acted “in a panic”, Maurice Blackburn employment lawyer Josh Bornstein said.

“We have a conflict between rights to religious belief and religious activity, which are recognised under statute,” he told ABC Radio.

“If you say our values are that we don’t want to employ people who are gay or don’t like having women working for us who are pregnant … then your values or your contracts or policies may run headlong into discrimination law.”

Mr Thorburn told the club he did not write the sermons and their contents was not known to him, but Essendon president David Barham said he could not stay on as chief executive if he retained his position at the church. The ultimatum prompted the resignation and a statement from Mr Thorburn warning his “personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square”.

The incident has reignited calls for religious freedom protections, with a spokesman for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus saying the government was still “committed to extending the federal anti-discrimination framework to ensure that Australians are not discriminated against because of their religious beliefs or activities in other areas of public life”.

Mr Dutton’s criticism of Essendon was supported on Wednesday by Coalition MPs, with Victorian MP and opposition spokesman on social services Michael Sukkar arguing Essendon FC and Mr Andrews had “sent a clear message to every Australian of faith: you are a bigot”. “You’re not welcome in our football clubs, in our board rooms, in our schools or in the public square,” he said.