Mark Allaby
A senior executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers has resigned from the board of the Australian Christian Lobby after his firm faced pressure to sever his ties with the extreme religious lobbying organisation.
Last week Crikey reported that Mark Allaby, a senior executive for PwC, was listed as a director on the board of the Australian Christian Lobby, the group that is currently leading the charge for a vitriolic campaign against same-sex marriage and the Safe Schools Coalition.
Allaby’s position on the board of the ACL raised a few eyebrows given PwC’s support for LGBTI rights, and led to some complaining to PwC and Pride in Diversity, the LGBTI organisation of which PwC is a member. PwC last year was named top Australian employer for LGBTI people for the second year running by Pride in Diversity.
Allaby’s name was removed from the ACL’s website late last week, as well as from the organisation’s charity listing on the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC). Australian Christian Lobby spokesperson Martyn Iles refused to confirm whether Allaby had resigned, telling Crikey he was “not in a position to comment”. Crikey has confirmed that following an investigation by his employer, Allaby has resigned from the board.
A spokesperson for PwC said that one in 10 of the company’s staff participate in board or advisory roles outside of PwC, but they’re not given a free pass to join any board they want:
“When it comes to employee participation on external boards, if a conflict arises between an employee’s board role and the best interests of PwC, we would request that they step down from that board”
Crikey understands although Allaby’s job title is “senior executive”, due to the way PwC is structured, he is not in the most senior 500 staff in the company.
Pride in Diversity told people complaining about Allaby that it stood by PwC as employer of the year because employee surveys conducted in the firm showed high levels of engagement, support and inclusiveness from the organisation. The group said employers could not police what staff do on their own time outside of work. It’s only where there is a conflict of values in the workplace where it would be an issue.
Intriguingly, Allaby was listed as a director of the ACL on its website and on ACNC documents. But according to ASIC documents seen by Crikey — both the ACL’s own ASIC documents and Allaby’s personal ASIC documents — he was never officially a director of the organisation. He continues to be a director of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, however. This organisation was set up in 2014 to fund “post tertiary Christians considering careers in areas with influence on public policy”, i.e. the next generation of Lyle Sheltons.
The founder of that organisation is Nick Jensen, the man who rose to prominence last year after threatening to divorce his wife if same-sex marriage became legal in Australia.
Last night Shelton, who heads the ACL, appeared on Q&A arguing against same-sex marriage and the Safe Schools Coalition. Shelton, an advocate for holding a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, again warned that if same-sex marriage were to be made legal in Australia it could lead to another “stolen generation”. He also claimed transgenderism was “contested gender ideology”. When he was challenged on the contents of the Safe Schools Coalition lesson plans by one of its authors, Shelton insisted that the contents were unsuitable for high school students.
Labor this week is expected to attempt to bring on a vote in the House of Representatives for a bill to allow same-sex marriage to be legalised, to challenge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s promise to the far right of his party to hold a plebiscite after the election. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is marching in the Mardi Gras parade as part of the Rainbow Labor float in Sydney on Saturday, and he has said that the parade could be used to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage this week if Turnbull abandoned his $160 million plebiscite plans.
Former prime minister John Howard, who, along with the support of Labor in 2004, enshrined a ban on same-sex marriage in the Marriage Act, told Sky News over the weekend that he would have preferred Parliament to have a free vote on the matter, but that Turnbull should honour his promise to undertake a plebiscite.
10 thoughts on “PwC exec leaves Australian Christian Lobby board”
Neil Aitchison
March 1, 2016 at 1:36 pmThe Australian Newspaper has an article saying how the “Safe Schools” program teaches children about sex and sexuality, and right along side it, there is another article saying how “child-on-child” sex abuse is rife….the obvious connection is that when children learn about adult-only sex issues, they are too young and immature to handle the information responsibly thereby leading the children to have “play sex” (that’s what the children call it) or doing “pretend sex” (their words) to make out that what they are doing isn’t real sex when it actually is. The result is children getting sexually active at pre-teen ages with devastating results. Connecting the dots between irresponsible child “sex talk” and irresponsible child “sex action” is very easy. And where is abstaining from sex until you get married mentioned in all of this??….it’s never mentioned!….God’s sacred use of sex within marriage is COMPLETELY ignored. The result is widespread hurt by pre-marital, unprotected, (sometimes forced) child sex just to be cool or because they have sexual concepts introduced into their unprepared minds that spark a curiosity to experiment with it. The bully kids can rape other kids and get away with it because they say it is only “play/pretend” sex. Needless to say, the sex acts are in ALL shapes and forms…..PARENTS: please beware of what can happen to your children. This is the inevitable result of sexualizing our young people.
Sometimes the truth hurts. Exposing “unSafe Schools” for what it is and exposing the same sex agenda is a good thing because it shows that our human desires (sin?) cannot override reality, but rather reality overrides our desires. For some people to try to undermine the family unit and create the illusion of “moral relativism” which destroys society (as my example above is just one example) is creating discussion and critical thinking. The more, the better. Is our biological sex determined by nature or nurture?….it’s obviously the former. Is our gender different to our sex?….nope!….it’s only the subjective, post-modernist person of the “progressive” gay mindset who thinks that redefining words can somehow change reality. Since when is “progress” always a good thing anyhow? It’s all just tricky word-smithing and targeting the naive young children of our society (without parental approval) because they are easy pickings. Make-believe “medical” reports just facilitate the illusion. The seperation of “sex” (male/female biology) and “gender” is the latest attempt to trick people – because the biological make-up of a man and a woman is SOOOOO obvious, the same sex lobby has conceded that your biology (your anatomy) has either man parts or woman parts. QED. …..but now you can have “gender” which is the male/female/other that you “feel” you want to be – this is what the “unSafe Schools” program is ultimately teaching. So you can feel like you are a “man” (gender) in a woman’s body (sex) or a “woman” (gender) in a man’s body (sex)…..or you can be both “man and woman” (fluid gender) in a man or woman body (sex)…..or a “man” in a man or woman body but dressing in a woman way or vise vesa…..or a “both gender” in a body that needs added hormones and body parts snipped off…..or a tuck and nip penis/breast body adaption in a fluid-trans-intersex-hetro/homo gender (…..did you just laugh?…..no, no, no…..this is actually what they are trying to instill in our children at a pre-puberty age). Can you imagine how totally screwed up in the head these poor children will be as they grow up through their teenage years and then have to actual “decide” what “gender” they feel like for the rest of their lives – that’s right…..once the physical anatomy has been changed in their young, immature years, their bodies cannot be reversed back when they wise up and make a mature decision to be heterosexual in a God-given way. The scares are there for life – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually (the latter being the spirit of anti-Christ).
Jess Evans
March 1, 2016 at 2:06 pmBOOM headshot… gratz Crikey 😉
paddy
March 1, 2016 at 3:07 pmSuch a pity he resigned from the wrong board.
AR
March 1, 2016 at 3:30 pmI have no respect for the bedwetters of soshal meeja but this is a real case of a real problem. Appropriately resolved though I also endorse Paddy’s point.
zut alors
March 1, 2016 at 4:27 pmIn a world of news overload mostly comprised of (a) human tragedy, (b) celebrity updates, we welcome those light relief stories such as ‘…Nick Jensen, the man who rose to prominence last year after threatening to divorce his wife if same-sex marriage became legal in Australia.’
Norman Hanscombe
March 1, 2016 at 6:34 pmThere’s scant doubt that the Commissariat’s zealots would be outraged if one of their darlings was driven out under similar circumstances, but it would be outrageous for anyone to expect consistency from the Great Pretenders inhabiting the weird world of Crikey.
Hoojakafoopy
March 1, 2016 at 9:47 pmWho cares about what John Howard thinks? Why should we learn of his opinions any more? Pthphflthp!
drsmithy
March 2, 2016 at 12:24 am‘…Nick Jensen, the man who rose to prominence last year after threatening to divorce his wife if same-sex marriage became legal in Australia.’
One wonders if he wife would realise how lucky she was if this came to pass ?
Phen
March 2, 2016 at 1:41 pmThey’re hardly the KKK. I dont think its appropriate that PwC insist he sever ties with the organisation if he’s doing it in his own time.
Brian
March 15, 2016 at 11:17 pm“Mark Allaby, a “senior executive” at PricewaterhouseCoopers, has left the Australian Christian Lobby board following outrage.” What form did this outrage take?
“A senior executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers has resigned from the board of the Australian Christian Lobby after his firm faced pressure to sever his ties with the extreme religious lobbying organisation.” Pressure from whom?
“Allaby’s position on the board of the ACL raised a few eyebrows given PwC’s support for LGBTI rights, and led to some complaining to PwC and Pride in Diversity, the LGBTI organisation of which PwC is a member.” Whose eyebrows were raised? Who complained about Allaby to PwC and Pride in Diversity? Was it the author of this story?
“The group (Pride in Diversity) said employers could not police what staff do on their own time outside of work. It’s only where there is a conflict of values in the workplace where it would be an issue.” Who decides if there is such a conflict?