Having taken Rugby Australia to court for unfair dismissal and having won a $8m payout which was nearly double his remaining contract Israel Folau has signed a roughly $300 000 -$400 000 contract with the Catalan Dragons.

I think that this is the point where Raelene Castle should be fired for sheer incompetence.

Castle will eventually get her comeuppance; it's the continuous bitching about Folau himself that is the problem. He has been treated abominably just for exercising his right to free speech, and now he is being hounded because he has found a team that is actually interested in his ability, not his personal opinions. Here's hoping that his tormentors will be regularly trounced by his new team: not that I give two hoots about childish sports, but Rugby Australia deserves to be humiliated for its disgusting attitude to freedom of belief and speech.

Shadow Minister,

This is where you belong, discussing football.

Mr 0

Only an arts graduate would be dim enough to think that this was about football.

I wonder why Israel Folau doesn't just become a Priest if he is so religious ? What's the weekly wage for a priest in comparison to a footballer ?

The worlds highest profile homosexual, Obama, and his transvestite wife and two adopted children, lost badly to a real man also, Donald Trump.

Three cheers Israel Folau.

Quite simply, the gays are outnumbered!

Dan

Come in runner, come in runner...

I was wondering why these fools who think mother earth is killing people because we burn coal are allowed to play football, perform as sluts at half time of football matches and fly the globe preaching to others. To many double standards for me.

The # 1 prerequisite to have an interest in football is mindlessness so, whatever emanates from there follows the branches of that mentality !

For a start Folau did not get a payout of $8 Million, he had his contract paid out. His claim was not about football, it was about his right to express his beliefs in his private space. But in fact a violent act was shown to him and his wife, by denying them their freedom.

Joe,

It was leaked to the papers recently that the payout was $8m based not only on the cancellation of the contract, but the blanket ban on Folau working anywhere else in Aus.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2019/12/israel-folau-and-wife-maria-thank-god-after-reported-lucrative-settlement-with-rugby-australia.html

Dear Shadow Minister,

You really can't let this go can you. Folau was not paid anywhere near 8 million and your link does not even mention a figure.

Folau also apologised to Rugby Australia, forewent any reinstatement, and also forewent any chance of playing for a club in Australia (which is something I didn't agree with incidentally).

His legal team cost about $400,000 but Folau raised over 2 million mainly from conservative Christians for his legal fees. Do you know where that money has ended up?

His new club in France, the Catalans Dragons, have him on a contract far tighter than what he had with Rugby Australia and Folau has given a firm undertaking not to repeat his actions. Other clubs in the super league over there, led by Hull KR have put the Dragons on notice that they will sue if the signing costs them financially. News just in the Catalans Dragons have cancelled the public unveiling of their new signing. Both the Rugby Football League and the Super League over there have labelled Folau's comments as deplorable and will be keeping him on a very short leash.

And you are somehow polishing this turd into a win? Good luck with that old chum. Ain't going to happen. Time to move on.

Time to move on.
Steeleredux,
What, with the football mentality ? You are of course joking, aren't you ?

SR,

From the first paragraph of the link:

"The former Wallabies star will reportedly receive an AU$8 million windfall from his former employers, who sacked him earlier this year, after repeated social media comments that breached code-of-conduct rules." This came out after the actual figure was leaked subsequent to the previous thread and what is clear is the amount settled on Folau far exceeds the amount of the contract payout. The question is whether the additional +/- $4m was based on the religious discrimination factor or the illegal blocking of IF from being employed at other levels and codes in Australia.

While this is not a complete victory for Folau, it is a serious loss for RA. The huge payout by RA is a potent warning to future employers who are considering dismissing employees based on religious posts.

P.S. The church fund collection for IF has paid his legal costs and is busy returning the remainder as they said they would.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Well I did miss that. My apologies.

The article was written the morning after the agreement was made and was highly speculative. The figure of $8 million was quickly described as wildly inaccurate on the very same day.

A week later even the Australian was acknowledging it as such;

“Initially press reports on Thursday suggested that RA would have to pay out $8m to Folau but clearly no one in their right mind would have seriously entertained such a figure. Desperate as the rugby authorities were to make the whole sorry mess go away, they would surely have taken their chances in the Federal Court rather than settle for such an outrageous sum. Further digging produced what would seem to be a far more reasonable amount of $3.1m, which curiously enough was a figure bounced around right at the beginning of this saga.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/rugby-union/raelene-castle-key-to-cutprice-3m-deal-for-exiled-israel-folau/news-story/afb95bb7d6262d83b014cc0fd8cce356

I don't think there would be a serious sports journo in the country who would still think the payout was anywhere near $8 million. Why do you?

You write;

“While this is not a complete victory for Folau, it is a serious loss for RA. The huge payout by RA is a potent warning to future employers who are considering dismissing employees based on religious posts.”

No it wasn't. A good part of the payout was handled by the insurance company. As to future employees all that will happen is the contracts will be tightened further as is what happened with his new club. Or alternatively they won't bother. The NRL in Australia has completely ruled out Folau ever shifting back to that code. Surely that would be a case for religious discrimination. Why isn't Folau suing them? Answer, because this wasn't decided on a freedom of religion basis but one of unfair dismissal.

You can't sue anyone of unfair dismissal if you don't employ them in the first place.

Only the most desperate would call this a win.

SR,

To be fair, the general consensus was that the figure was $3m and as Folau's settlement was confidential it was not until there was a leak that the true figure came out.

That Folau is $8m (more than $4m) richer than he would have been without RA's action is a huge win for him personally. For the cash strapped RA, it can attempt to claim a moral victory, however, the message that any right minded businesses will take on board is that firing someone for expressing their religious views is extremely expensive.

Or as the saying goes "get woke, go broke".

Dear Shadow Minister,

You write;

“To be fair, the general consensus was that the figure was $3m and as Folau's settlement was confidential it was not until there was a leak that the true figure came out.”

That is not being fair at all, it's bloody being ridiculous.

Both the Daily Telegraph and Sky News made the 8mill claim on the day. So did Channel 9.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JQsQEd-jtA

This was the first amount that was flagged, not 3 million that you claim.

The Folau agreement was struck on Wednesday December the 4th. This story from the ABC was first posted 4 Dec 2019, 2:19pm. No mention of amount.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-04/rugby-australia-israel-folau-mediation-settlement/11765866

This one by the SMH was first published at 2.13pm. Again no mention of amount.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/rugby-australia-reaches-settlement-with-folau-20191204-p53gr6.html

By the end of the week not a single half decent news agency was running the 8 million line. Why do you continue to do so?