Former Wallabies coach and broadcaster Alan Jones has blasted Rugby Australia for finding Israel Folau had breached the players' code of conduct, saying he was "ashamed" of the sport and would fight its decision.
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Folau was on Tuesday found guilty of committing a "high-level" breach of his contract by a three-person independent panel for his controversial social media post last month, leaving him open to being sacked from the game.
While a high-level breach is the only way Folau's four-year, $4 million contract can be terminated, effective immediately, there is no guarantee that will be the result. The panel of John West, QC, Kate Eastman, SC, and John Boultbee, AM, could decide that a fine and a suspension would suffice, even if that appears unlikely at this stage.
On his breakfast show on Wednesday morning, Jones claimed the panel was not independent and that Folau, with the support of Jones and "millions" of Australians, would "take this fight every inch of the way".
"This will go as far as the High Court if it has to go there," he said. "The battle has just begun."
"I coached Australian rugby, I was proud of it, I was proud of the boys and I was proud of everything we stood for. Today, I'm ashamed of the very people who've inherited our proud legacy," Jones said on air.
Jones coached the Wallabies between 1984 and 1987.
"If we're not free to articulate our religious beliefs and quote from the Bible, and if we're not free to speak for fear that someone affects ... hurt or is part of the offence industry, if that's where we've reached in this country, we've reached a dark place and we are all at risk," he said.
Mr Jones also said former Labor leader Mark Latham's maiden speech in NSW Parliament, which will be delivered on Wednesday afternoon and defends Folau, "may be the most outstanding political speech I have ever read".
"It should be read by every school child, better still, every university lecturer," Mr Jones said.
In an advance copy of the speech, quoted on air by Jones, Latham says "I stand with Israel Folau" and accuses Rugby Australia of making the game "less inclusive".
"In his time away from his job playing footy he's a preacher at his community church and naturally quotes the bible," Latham will say, according to Jones. "Yet for his beliefs, his Christianity, he's not allowed to play rugby."
Latham will also say the decision exposes a "new serfdom" in which companies want to control all aspects of employees' lives.
Folau, a 30-year-old devout Christian, took to Instagram last month to proclaim "hell awaits" for "drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolators".
Latham joined Jones on air on Wednesday morning, saying Folau made the comments "in his own private time" and that was "completely unexceptional".
Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle issued Folau with a breach notice last month following his social media posts and threatened to tear up his four-year, $4 million contract.
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- SMH/The Age
