The AFL is committed to continuing the fight against racism in our sport and to continuously improving our processes to deal with discrimination of any kind.  

Racism is not, and never will be, acceptable in our game and there are no circumstances where racism can be allowed to go unchecked. We regret that any person suffers racism in our game. 

We acknowledge and understand the impact that racism had on Joel Wilkinson during the course of his AFL career, including a number of serious incidents including where Joel was vilified by an opposition player who was later suspended for six weeks and fined under the AFL’s vilification rules. A separate incident where Joel was racially abused by a supporter in the crowd was also investigated by the AFL. We regret that Joel suffered racism in these incidents and acknowledge the hurt caused to him.

The AFL is clear that any use of blackface is never acceptable in any forum or at any time. While the AFL was not aware of the 2013 end-of-season blackface incident until 2018 shortly before Joel detailed the incident in his complaint to the Human Rights Commission, one thing that is clear is that the behaviour is wrong and is behaviour that we would never accept or condone.

Again, we understand the impact this has had on Joel. We are sorry that it happened, and it shouldn’t have. 

We have taken serious and genuine steps to address racism in our game and to listen and to learn from people in our game and the experiences they have had and we will continue to do so. While Joel’s complaint against the AFL, a number of clubs and players was terminated by the HRC in December 2019 with a number of serious allegations either withdrawn or dismissed, the AFL has always made clear it remains open to talking to Joel and to learn from his experiences.   In 2014 the AFL had worked with Joel to produce a video detailing his experiences with racism and its impact on him that was used to educate young players.  That remains on the AFL website today 

The AFL retained Peter Gordon of Gordon Legal to represent the AFL and all other parties in the HRC case because of Peter’s unparalleled reputation as a first-class lawyer and for his fairness and integrity in matters of discrimination.  Whilst acting for the AFL and the other parties he acted on the instructions of the AFL General Counsel and those other parties.  

The AFL deeply regrets that we have not been able to resolve this matter to date.

We want all people to be able to belong and feel welcome in our game at all times and we will strive to end racism and discrimination that exists at any level of our game. We will continue to work hard to ensure we have behaviours, actions, programs, processes and beliefs in place that support a safe environment for all. 

Statement by Peter Gordon

• It is important for me to first state that in the course of this case, I have been deeply saddened by the racism suffered by Joel Wilkinson during his time in the AFL.
• The AFL was first notified of claims by Joel Wilkinson in December 2017 that the AFL and a number of clubs and people in the industry had breached his rights under the Racial Discrimination  Act.  This was several years after he had left the football industry.   There were negotiations between his lawyers and the AFL’s in-house lawyers for six months before he announced in a press conference that he would prosecute legal claims in the Human Rights commission (‘the HRC”). 
• I was first approached by the AFL in late May 2018 to defend it and all the other clubs and people whom Joel accused of breaches of the Act in the case.
• I agreed to act for all respondents on the basis we would approach the case fairly and I approached it consonant with the principles which have guided my forty years in the law.
• It is important to note that from the first time Joel contacted the AFL about this claim, the AFL acknowledged that he had suffered from racism in his time in the AFL and expressed regret over it.  
• Racism, especially amongst AFL crowds have been a shameful and perennial feature of the history of our game even into the present decade.   I have often acknowledged that and the history of my own actions while President of the Bulldogs, both in public and within the AFL, demonstrates it.  This history is not hard to google search. 
• The history of racism directed at Joel Wilkinson included a case of vilification of Joel by a Western Bulldogs player Justin Sherman leading to the AFL’s most recent Rule 35 prosecution in 2011.  The outcome of that case is a matter of public record.  
•  Other incidents where Joel was racially abused by supporters in crowds - including games at Geelong and the MCG - were also investigated at the time by the AFL and by the clubs concerned.
• The AFL supported Joel in those complaints and worked with him in 2014 after his retirement to produce a video on the impact of racism.  That video enabled him to publicly tell his story on a very broad platform. The video has also been used as part of player training on the impact of racism and the video is still available on the AFL website.
• In his HRC complaint against the AFL, Joel also brought allegations against a number of clubs and a number of individuals.  In the next several months, as I investigated the complaints, one of them was proven to be false and a number of others were withdrawn by Joel and his lawyers early in the process.  I believed a number of the claims which remained would also fail.  It is of course important that if people of whatever background are accused of racism,  they be entitled to be vindicated when the evidence suggests the claims were false or cannot be proved. 
• The racism claims which Joel did not abandon then progressed in the Human Rights Commission until they were terminated in October 2019.  Joel then had a statutory period in which to bring his claims in the Federal Court and he chose not to proceed with them. 
• But as well as the claims which were disproven, withdrawn or bound to fail in my view,  there were other claims he made which were disturbing to me,  the AFL and the Gold Coast Suns (despite differing accounts of relevant events by different players,)  and we sought to learn more about those incidents from Joel.  The 2013 Gold coast Suns end-of-season blackface incident he has now raised publicly was one of those matters.  The AFL did not know about the 2013 blackface incident until early 2018 when Joel brought his claim. The AFL was shocked by it and would never have condoned or approved it, had it known.  The Suns also would not have allowed it or condoned it had they known of it. 
• As a past AFL club president, I can also say we Club administrators always dreaded Mad Mondays as accidents waiting to happen, which is why they are now far more rigidly controlled than they were in 2013 when they were generally private players functions off-limits to non players, irreverent, and involving dress ups, mockery  and drinking to excess.
• Leigh Osborne  who dressed up as Joel including in blackface on that day has authorised me to release a statement on his behalf. 
• Five years on, Leigh first found out he was one of the respondents to Joel’s action; being accused by Joel not just of discrimination but also of racial hatred.  He said sorry to Joel straightaway.  Joel’s  HRC complaint contained a photo of the GCS players including of Leigh dressed in blackface as Joel.  It had been cropped to remove a number of players including Joel in his own costume and participating in the photograph.  For the first three days in which  I had the complaint containing only the cropped photo, I thought Leigh’s position was close to hopeless and I was sceptical of his explanation.  Then my office discovered the real photo.
• Leigh  believed he had Joel’s consent to dress up as him.  He believed they were and remained friends.  He says he was never asked to remove the paint by Joel on the day.  He says if he had been, he would have done so immediately and now understands that what he did is wrong and is sorry at the impact his actions have had on Joel .  The two posed happily in the photo and then enjoyed a long day’s drinking.  They went to Las Vegas together two weeks later.
• As Leigh’s lawyer, I believed the photo…the real one… and all of those contextual matters I just described were important  evidence for Leigh, especially on the racial hatred allegation.  The uncropped photo might have been important to corroborate whether Leigh’s behaviour, was merely racially insensitive and ill-informed, or rose to a level of racial hatred.  As to disputed facts between Joel and Leigh about for example,  whether Joel repeatedly asked Leigh to wash the paint off, I thought the photo was also relevant. 
• I feel I was misled by the photo cropping as to the true nature of the evidence and I believe the HRC was too.  I thought the presentation of the complaint in that way was deeply unsatisfactory and so I wrote to Joel’s lawyers complaining about it.  Part of my letter read;

We do not wish to criticise Mr Wilkinson’s conduct in dressing as he did.  Whether or not Mr Wilkinson’s costume was itself problematic, it is reasonable to infer that whomever was responsible for the cropping of the photo which was filed with the Commission and served on Gordon Legal thought that it was ‘a problem’.  More particularly, it appears that the motivation for doctoring the Group Photo as Filed was that Mr Wilkinson’s own portrayal on this day may raise questions about his own respect for other cultures and identities.  And but for our discovery of the cropping and the real photo, we, our clients and the Human Rights Commission would have been denied the opportunity of fair representation and a fair defence to this complaint.”

• I stand by that explanation.   Before I sent the letter, I consulted about it with Queen’s counsel Jack Rush, (a former Supreme Court Judge,) whose view was that the letter was not only appropriate but a necessary step.
• None of that of course is to excuse the blackface incident – it should not have happened then and it should never happen again.  But the context does bear some explanation.
• These matters which Leigh’s barristers and I intended to raise might have found favour with a Judge or they might have failed.  But Leigh and the court were entitled to see the real photograph and not a cropped version of it.  This incident was one of a large number of issues which were  ventilated in this case before either being abandoned or terminated by the HRC. 

Statement By Leigh Osborne

Joel Wilkinson was a friend as well as a teammate who I liked and respected. 

When I attended the 2013 Mad Monday type event dressed as Joel I did so with the loan of his jumper and with his agreement after I had asked him whether it was okay to dress up as him.

Joel never raised any issue about it with me on the day. He was pretty strikingly dressed himself and I just thought he went dressed as a native American Indian. 

We joked around at the start of the day and we all posed for a photograph.  Then we spent the day drinking…that’s how those Mad Mondays used to go.  A couple of weeks later, Wilko and I went to Las Vegas together for our end-of-season trip.  We had a great time in Las Vegas.

Since then, we have seen each other from time to time but he’s never mentioned the Wacky Wednesday event to me. 

The first time I became aware that Joel was upset about what I did was when I found out about his complaint to the Human Rights Commission years later in 2018. 

As soon as I found out about it, I contacted him and apologised to him for my actions and said I was sorry for what I had done in 2013.  I never meant to hurt or ridicule him but looking back now I understand it was wrong.

I was a pretty young bloke in 2013 and have come to learn a lot more about these things since then and I am sorry to have caused any trouble or hurt and obviously wouldn’t ever do it again.