Culture

Missing Funds, Racism And Malcolm Turnbull: The Messy Battle Over The Future Of Mardi Gras

This year's Mardi Gras board elections have exposed big, political fault lines across the organisation.

by Osman Faruqi  27 October 2016

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The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) is an iconic and internationally renowned celebration of diversity. Born in the struggle of the civil rights movement it has grown into a multi-million organisation and a national cultural landmark. Every year thousands of people take part in the parade and hundreds of thousands of visitors line Oxford Street, cheering them on.

It’s well-loved by pretty much everyone, except for Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile, who prays for rain on Mardi Gras day every year.

But behind the scenes key members of the organisation that runs Mardi Gras are locked in a bitter and divisive battle over the future of Australia’s premiere LGBTIQ event.

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A Bitter Fight Leading Up To Board Elections

This year’s elections for the board of the SGLMG have become embroiled in controversy with allegations of mismanagement and racism directed at current and potential board members. Even Malcolm Turnbull has been drawn into the campaign, with his controversial presence at this year’s Mardi Gras parade becoming a political fault line within the organisation.

The board is the ultimate decision making body of the organisation. It’s made up of eight people, directly elected from the membership. It’s responsible for representing the members and the broader community, developing policy and managing the organisations finances.

Elections for the board are held annually, but only four of the board’s eight positions are declared vacant each year. Prior to 2015, all eight board positions were elected in one go. Proponents of the change argue that it allows for continuity and stability on the board. But more cynical Mardi Gras members Junkee has spoken to have suggested the change was about making it harder for candidates from minority communities to attract enough support to get elected.

This year 15 candidates are vying for the four positions. But before exploring the current tensions, it’s worth looking at some of the recent controversies that have laid the groundwork for some of the division.

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Missing Funds, Politicians And Protest

On June 3 this year an extraordinary general meeting of the board was held to discuss a number of motions put forward by two directors — James Brechney and Silke Bader. The motions covered a range of different issues relating to transparency and governing processes, but a number focused on financial mismanagement.

One motion requested that board members be notified of “any suspected theft within the organisation valued at $2,000 or more”. Another asked the board to “press charges on suspected theft exceeding $10,000 of SGLMG by employees or volunteers of SGLMG”. The motions didn’t go into greater detail and neither were supported by a majority of the board.

Nearly three months later, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mitchell Price, a former executive assistant to the SGLMG CEO, was forced to repay nearly $14,000 after it emerged he had charged personal expenses to the organisation’s credit card.

At the time the story broke Price was managing the campaign of the Liberal Party’s candidate for Sydney Lord Mayor, Christine Forster. Price told SMH  that the expenditure was made in “error”. The details of his exit from SGLMG were part of a confidentiality agreement.

Just days later it emerged that figures within the organisation contested Price’s version of events and were adamant it amount to “theft or fraud”, rather than a simple error. Leaked board minutes revealed that some board members did not want to publicly comment on the matter out of fear that the Liberal party might win the upcoming City of Sydney elections and throw Mardi Gras’ $1.5 million funding agreement with the council into jeopardy.

The saga highlighted tensions within the board on the issues of financial management and transparency. But it’s not the only issue that’s led to division this year.

This year’s Mardi Gras parade was the first to be attended by a sitting Prime Minister, and the first to feature the leaders of both major parties. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten’s presence at Mardi Gras ended up being embroiled in controversy, though for separate reasons.

Shorten’s presence was targeted by pro-refugee activists who marched as part of the “No Pride in Detention” float. Video footage showed a senior Mardi Gras staffer threatening to ban the float if participants “harassed” or even spoke to Shorten.

The issue became a proxy for a wider battle within the SGLMG, and the wider LGBTIQ community, on whether the parade had become de-politicised and sanitised in order to broaden its political appeal and attract coveted corporate sponsorship.

Turnbull’s presence at Mardi Gras was historic, but as the issue of the same-sex marriage plebiscite divided parliament and the community, his presence at events like Mardi Gras has become more controversial.

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The Election

At a recent marriage equality rally James Brechney, the founder of the DIY Rainbow movement, addressed the crowd and announced that he would tell the SGLMG board “I don’t think we want Malcolm Turnbull at the parade.”

Last night Brechney was formally censured by the board for making those comments. The censure will be noted in the organisation’s annual report.

Brechney is running for re-election to the board of Mardi Gras. He believes the censure motion will be circulated to Mardi Gras members in order to “embarrass” him. The timing of the motion comes less than two weeks before the board elections.

According to last year’s annual report there were 1,328 members of Mardi Gras in 2015. Membership costs $15 per year and is open to any member of the public. In order to vote in this year’s election new members have to sign up by tomorrow, October 28.

Junkee has been told by a number of Mardi Gras sources that the current membership is similar to 2015 levels. Turnout in previous board elections has hovered around the 50 percent mark.

That means that in order to get elected, according to the election procedures laid out in the constitution, a candidate needs to receive around 150 votes. If the full board was being elected, as opposed to half, a candidate would need around 84 votes to secure a position on the board.

Brechney’s candidate statement makes it clear he wants a more politically active Mardi Gras. “We need to remember our protest roots and stand up to the federal government to stop the vilification of Safe Schools, roadblocks to marriage equality, to encourage universal funding for PrEP and express our solidarity with refugees,” Brechney writes.

A number of other candidates concerned about the organisation’s current direction and lack of diversity have thrown their hat into the ring. Kat Dopper and Ollie Henderson decided to run for the board out of a sense of frustration and a feeling that the current board was disconnected from the LGBTIQ community.

Once the full list of candidates was made public, Dopper and Henderson decided to meet up with Brechney and another candidate, Samuel Day. All four realised they had a similar vision for the organisation and wanted to work collaboratively.

Dopper, who founded Heaps Gay, told Junkee that she was “constantly hearing young people say how they don’t care or align with Mardi Gras anymore and haven’t for a long time”.

“Mardi Gras could be one of the most important voices within the LGBTIQ community and could help create change,” she said. “It is this hope, I guess, that helped me make the decision to run.”

Dopper points to the lack of diversity on the board as another motivating factor in the decision to stand for election. “The existing board is made up of two women and six men, all caucasian. I don’t feel they represent the wider LGBTIQ community.

Henderson, who runs The House of Riot fashion label, agrees with Dopper. When asked to summarise her campaign she said, “Mardi Gras needs to take responsibility for the community that it represents. Currently, only a small slice of our community is really catered for under the Mardi Gras banner. We need further community consolation, decentralisation, and inclusivity.”

Both Dopper and Henderson referenced the allegations of financial mismanagement and told Junkee that organisation should “overhaul” its processes in order to better identify and deal with potential mismanagement of funds.

Given the board’s response to the controversies this year, as well as last night’s censure motion, it’s clear that Dopper, Henderson and Brechney are heading for a potential collision course with the majority of current board members, if they are elected. But all seem quite eager to work collaboratively in order to implement their ideas.

“The board needs people with similar visions so that the organisation can keep moving forward,” Dopper told Junkee.

But not all the candidates share the same perspectives as Dopper, Henderson and Brechney. Another candidate, Jesse Matheson, has opposed Brechney’s plan to “uninvite” Turnbull from Mardi Gras. However he has stated that he wants SGLMG to “play a more active role in the fight for marriage equality and in defending Safe Schools”.

Matheson, a former columnist for Star Observer, has come under fire for an article he wrote in 2012 called ‘I’m A Sexual Racist’. In the article Matheson described people “Who won’t have sex with Indians or blacks or even whites” and questioned “Is that so bad?”

Yesterday Matheson issued an apology for the article and wrote: “the views expressed in those articles, and many others, do not reflect my current views or who I am now.”

David Imrie is a former board director who is putting his hand up again. Imrie was, up until this year, a member of the Liberal Party and has formerly served as the chair or the SGLMG. In his candidate statement, Imrie states: “there are some excellent directors on the board and some who really shouldn’t be there”.

That statement has been interpreted by some Mardi Gras members as a coded reference to Brechney.

Voting for the board elections will kick off on Monday October 31 and members can vote online until November 8. The final result will be declared at the organisation’s AGM on November 12.

Despite the size and influence of Mardi Gras, the tensions have largely remained behind closed doors. A number of board candidates have told Junkee that they believe the organisation’s membership is too small to be adequately representative of those that take part in Mardi Gras events, let alone the wider LGBTI community. Junkee approached a number of current directors as well as Mardi Gras staff for this article and we’ll update the story if we hear back.

This year’s elections have highlighted the battle going on within the organisation for the future of Mardi Gras. The organisation’s finances, how much of an activist stance it chooses to take and even the attendance of Malcolm Turnbull all potentially hang in the balance.

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Feature image via Catherine Bouris.