By DEBORAH CORNWALL and JESSICA CORTIS, The Australian
The Australian Christian Lobby’s fundraiser for Israel Folau has topped $1.5 million as the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney pledges his support to his “Christian brother”, claiming the way his support was cut off by GoFundMe was telling of “ a new and ugly Australia”.
The campaign has raised more money in less than 24 hours than the defunct GoFundMe appeal did over four days, amassing $1,527,274 in donations as of 11.36 AEST.
The former president of the Human Rights commission Gillian Triggs has weighed in to support Folau, telling ABC presenter Patricia Karvelas he was entitled to his view that “we are all going to hell”.
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“It’s foolish and disproportionate to prevent him from preaching something that he believes,” she said.
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According to the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), the shock move by the US site has proved an accidental PR triumph for Folau – dramatically expanding his support base as a rush of outraged donors flocked to Folau’s new funding raising site after it was launched shortly after midnight on Tuesday.
The ACL, which is handling the new legal war chest for Folau, says the swell of donors in the first 12 hours had been so “phenomenal” the fund was expected to reach up to $1.5 million by Wednesday – double the amount raised on GoFundMe in four days.
While the funding goal on the GoFundMe site was to raise a $3 million legal war chest, employment lawyers told The Australian the legal fees for Folau’s contract dispute in the Federal Court would generally range between $400,000 to $500,000, and could reach $1.5 million if Folau lost his case and was granted leave to appear in the High Court.
That prompted the ACL to insist once the fund reached $1.5 million there be a full review of likely legal fees to ensure no excess donations are accepted.
President of the Law Council of Australia, Arthur Moses, told The Australian that given Folau’s legal battle was “in essence a contract dispute, at first blush the $3 million seems rather excessive”.
He said the courts and the justice system had yet to grapple with the “ethical issues” raised by crowd funding litigation.”
“Mr Folau has the right to bring whatever case he is properly advised to bring, the concern is to ensure that nothing is said that induces the public to donate money based on a misunderstanding of what the case is about or what it will achieve,”, Mr Moses said.
Archbishop Glenn Davies said the original social media post that cost Folau his $5 million contract “canvassed some basic tenets of the Christian faith” and was “posted without malice.”
“Israel Folau’s right to express his faith and act according to his conscience is of fundamental importance in any democracy, and it is of great concern to many Australians that this right is being denied and vilified. Many are wondering whether they will be next,” Archbishop Davies wrote.
“What Israel Folau is going through may shine a light on an issue which is vital to our democracy and of crucial importance for Christians — freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom to live according to our faith.”
He said the way in which Folau’s motives had been “impugned” and his avenues of support cut off spoke of “a new and ugly Australia where dissent from narrow cultural views is not tolerated.”
The ACL set up the fundraising campaign for the former Wallabies star on its website after Folau’s successful GoFundMe page was closed by the US-based crowd-funding platform yesterday.
By 5.39pm, $1,084,000 had been donated via the link on the ACL site — with the group also promising to tip in $100,000 of their own money.
Folau launched his GoFundMe appeal for $3 million on Friday and had raised $750,000 in four days from more than 7000 donors. But the fundraising platform pulled the campaign yesterday, saying it violated their terms of service and announced it would refund all donations.
“As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ+ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity. While we welcome GoFundMe’s engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion,” GoFundMe Australia’s regional manager Nicola Britton said.
But Martyn Iles, the managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, stepped in to host a reborn online appeal for funds.
“On behalf of the Australian Christian Lobby, I have spoken to Israel Folau to let him know that ACL will be donating $100,000 to his legal defence, because it’s right and it sets an important legal precedent,’’ Mr Iles said.
“I have also offered to host his online appeal for funds here on our website and he has accepted our offer. All gifts you give on this web page will be deposited into a trust account to pay for Israel Folau’s legal case.’’
So, been chatting with @IzzyFolau and we fixed it… http://israelfolau.com.au/donate/ #standwithizzy6232:34 AM – Jun 25, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacyReligious FreedomPowered by your support, Israel Folau will fight for all Australians’ religious freedom.acl.org.au594 people are talking about this
Folau’s push to raise a legal war chest to defend his religious beliefs was deemed unworthy by GoFundMe and a “violation” of the company’s values. But the US crowd-funding site cheerfully backed a transgender Australian nurse to have “vocal feminisation surgery’.
A doomed quest by a 20-year-old Perth man to raise $500,000 to buy a Ferrari also got the platform’s seal of approval.
The decision to dump the former Wallaby’s funding page unleashed a furious response across the country yesterday, with Mr Iles describing the move as “alarming” and “grand hypocrisy”.
“It’s decided to wield its politically correct baseball bat against anyone who doesn’t toe the line with their PC view of the world,” he told The Australian last night.
“How can they take down a fundraising page on the grounds it violates their diversity and inclusion policy while excluding a man on the basis of his faith identity?”
Despite dumping Folau’s efforts, a GoFundMe campaign in Britain titled “Israel Folau’s intolerance will not be tolerated’’ was still running and had raised about £8500 ($15,600) last night.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young used GoFundMe to raise money for legal costs in her defamation battle against then senator David Leyonhjelm after he told her to “stop shagging men”.
A spokesman for Folau last night described the platform’s decision to “buckle” to a “continuing campaign of discrimination against him and his 10,000-plus supporters” as “very disappointing”.
He said Folau’s personal website had already been the target of a sustained cyber attack, forcing the website to be shut down on Friday for 12 hours. His wife, Maria, had also been “vilified” for supporting her husband.
“While Israel does not intend to respond in detail at this time regarding the accusations thrown at him or his family, he wants it known that these attacks have hardened his resolve,” the spokesman said.
GoFundMe said all the donors would now have their money refunded, but it has yet to respond to questions about whether donors will still be charged its usual 2.2 per cent transaction fee.
“As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ+ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity,” spokeswoman Nicola Britton said. “While we welcome GoFundMe’s engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion.”
GoFundMe pages yesterday were raising funds for myriad activities, including allowing a man to migrate to Australia to be with his male partner and gender reassignment surgeries including for a 38-year-old nursing assistant who was attempting to raise $17,000 for vocal feminisation surgery, cheek implants and a lip lift.
The nursing assistant had to date raised only $5 but a transgender Australian man named Silas had raised $1270 of a $10,000 target for “top surgery’’.
In 2016, GoFundMe carried an attempt by accused hacker Dylan Wheeler to crowd-fund a $500,000 Ferrari for himself after his doctor said it was a remedy he was “unable to function properly without’’.
Jeremy Sammut, a senior research fellow with the Centre for Independent Studies, said the backlash against GoFundMe’s decision to drop Folau demonstrated the dangers of companies “jumping on to the progressive bandwagon” with corporate virtue-signalling.
“This raises critical issues about the role of companies in civil society,” Dr Sammutt said.
“It’s dressed up as inclusivity, but it is really demanding citizens to sacrifice their fundamental human rights.”
Dr Sammut said ordinary Australians who still believed they had a right to free speech were increasingly being hauled before HR at work for offending the sensibilities of fellow workers who now “expect to be protected and from people they disagree with”.
“Religious freedom is the canary in the coalmine,” he said.
Christian groups across the country were inundated with offers of further donations to Folau’s cause yesterday.
Reverend Michael Kallahan, adviser to the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, said GoFundMe’s decision to remove the campaign had actually “galvanised support” for Folau’s cause.
“People have been asking me how else they can donate and telling me they now want to double their contribution,” he said.
GoFundMe’s decision has raised fresh concerns about the use of crowd-funding to bankroll Folau’s legal action.
Employment lawyers told The Australian Folau’s $3m legal war chest struck them as an “extraordinary” figure given that it was unlikely Folau’s legal case would cost more than $400,000- $500,000 in fees.
Additional reporting: Elias Visontay
