Former Essendon chair Paul Little says AFL club is making ‘too many’ mistakes, following Andrew Thorburn resignation

A former Essendon chair says the AFL club is making “too many” mistakes, following the resignation of its new CEO, just a day after his appointment.

Andrew Thorburn resigned his position as Essendon CEO on Tuesday after it was revealed he was the chair of a church that had homophobic and anti-abortion sermons on its website.

Essendon issued a statement saying the views expressed by the City on a Hill church conflicted with the club’s values and that Mr Thorburn had been issued with an ultimatum.

Paul Little, who was chair of the Bombers from 2013 to 2015, told ABC Radio Melbourne he empathised with disappointed Essendon supporters and was “feeling their pain”.

“The mistakes that are being made — there are just too many, quite frankly,” he said.

“We all want, as supporters and members, we want a professional Essendon Football Club that is well run and well managed.”

He said it appeared to be a miss that the club did not find the views expressed by Mr Thorburn’s church during the recruitment process.

“That information was out there, it was easily accessible,” he said.

“When you’re the head of a football club, you can’t afford to have contentious issues out there — they need to be dealt with.”

Mr Little said while Essendon allowed for different views, the club stood for “diversity and inclusion”.

“There needs to be an understanding of both sides and an agreement reached on how some of these issues should be dealt with, and in this case it would appear that may not have happened,” he said.

“Quite frankly that’s not good enough.”

Mr Little said the club was facing numerous issues at the moment.

He pointed to the challenges the club faced in selecting a new coach and departures from the board.

“At the present time, we are not giving our members, our sponsors, our supporters, and of course our playing group a reasonable return to the trust they’ve put in those individuals,” he said.

Essendon has been contacted for comment.

Employment lawyer highlights conflicting rights

Josh Bornstein, an employment lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, told ABC Radio Melbourne Mr Thorburn might have been unlawfully discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of his religion.

“We have a conflict between rights to religious belief and religious activity, which are recognised under statute, and we also have rights to be free from homophobic vilification,” he said.

Mr Bornstein said for Essendon, it was also an issue of brand management.

“These matters are dealt with in a rush, in a panic, and with brand management at the heart of the exercise,” he said.

Essendon president David Barham said in a statement yesterday that the issue was with Mr Thorburn’s position as the church’s chair.

“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 the Hill,” Mr Barham said.

In a statement posted from his LinkedIn profile yesterday, Mr Thorburn reiterated his respect for all people but said that he was being forced to compromise “beyond a level that [his] conscience allowed”.

“Today 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,” Mr Thorburn said.

Before his resignation, Mr Thorburn told SEN his views did not completely align with the church’s.

“Some of these views are offensive to people and upset people, and I really respect that,” he said.

“I totally respect that people will have a different view to what was expressed, and I’m sort of saying in some ways I do.”

Ro Allen, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, told ABC Radio Melbourne under the law, people have the right to religious belief.

But they said Mr Thorburn’s employment conflicted with Essendon’s stated values about being “the most inclusive club”.

“It’s definitely a values conflict to employ someone who’s not just a passive member of a church [but on the board],” they said.

“They’ve actively worked against LGBTI people.

“Every time this is in the media, it does hurt a lot of people.”

The commissioner stressed not all Christians held the views expressed by the City on a Hill church.

While they cannot comment on individual cases, they said Mr Thorburn’s exit from Essendon may not constitute unlawful discrimination given he chose to resign.

Jason Tuazon-McCheyne, the founder of Essendon’s LGBT support group the Purple Bombers, told Radio National Mr Thorburn’s positions with the church and the Bombers were incongruous.

“You can’t chair an organisation that actively campaigns and has values that are contradictory to the organisation that you want to be CEO of — it doesn’t work,” he said.

Mr Tuazon-McCheyne said despite the initial failure in due diligence, he was “proud of the club” for making a quick decision to stand by its stated values of diversity and inclusion by issuing Mr Thorburn an ultimatum.

“They actually do believe their values, and I’m proud of that,” he said.

“I can go to the footy as a gay man with his husband and son and be safe at the footy.”

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said football clubs should be able to hire who they chose.

“What are we now, banning people going to church? Banning people from going to a synagogue? Banning people from going to a mosque?” he said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also said Essendon’s hiring decisions were up to the board, but he said bigger issues were at play.

“People can get all upset about the fact that someone resigned,” he said.

“I’m much more focused on the fact that people are harming themselves and sometimes taking their own lives because of bigotry and prejudice.

“Let’s not lose perspective about this. This is not about who runs a footy club — this is about issues that are much, much bigger than that.”