Israel Folau is pushing for an apology from Rugby Australia and an admission that its decision to tear up his multi-million dollar contract over a social media post was wrong.
The dumped Wallabies star is hoping to reach an agreement on Friday during a meeting at the Fair Work Commission with the game’s governing body.
Rugby Australia has accused Folau of lying about being offered money to take down the offending post.
Folau, his lawyers and representatives from RA and NSW Rugby will convene for a conciliation meeting in Sydney for the first formal step in his unfair dismissal case.
“Hopefully Rugby Australia will accept that my termination was unlawful and we can reach an agreement about how they can fix that mistake,” the 30-year-old said in a video posted on his website on Friday morning.
“First and foremost, I am hoping for an apology from Rugby Australia and an acknowledgement that even if they disagree with my views, that I should be free to peacefully express my religious beliefs without fear of retribution or exclusion.”
RA sacked Folau after taking issue with a social media post by the committed Christian in April that was condemned as homophobic.
Folau had paraphrased a Bible passage saying “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters” would go to hell unless they repented.
He argues he was unfairly dismissed on religious grounds.
Folau is seeking $10 million in damages from RA and wants his multi million-dollar contract reinstated.
Folau claimed on Thursday evening RA had offered him money to remove the post that caused the issue, but declined to do so as sharing the bible was part of his duty as a Christian.
“I couldn’t do that as a person that’s convicted by my faith. I couldn’t live with that,” Folau told Sky News hosts Alan Jones and Peta Credlin.
“It certainly comes from a place of love and it’s nothing personal.”
But RA immediately returned serve, saying Folau’s claim was “completely untrue” and they had never offered him money to remove the posts.
“Any suggestion that Rugby Australia offered Israel Folau money to remove a post made on April 10, 2019, is completely untrue,” an RA statement said.
More than 20,000 people donated more than $2.2 million to help fund Folau’s legal battle via a campaign set up by the Australian Christian Lobby.
The ACL effort replaced an earlier campaign on GoFundMe that was taken down by the platform for breaching its service guidelines.
“I want to thank you all for your prayers and your support. You have made it possible for me to stand up for every Australian of faith,” Folau said.
“I know we are strong enough to tolerate different views without firing people from their jobs for expressing religious beliefs that not everybody agrees with.”
Folau was non-committal when asked whether he’d like to play rugby again but did reinforce earlier comments that he bore no ill-feeling to those former Waratahs and Wallabies teammates who’d spoken out against him during the saga.