The AFL Players' Association has torched the AFL's handling of its investigation into allegations of historical racism at Hawthorn, saying the representative body held grave concern for the process from the beginning.
On Tuesday night, chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the AFL had reached an agreement with the families and their representatives involved in allegations of mistreatment of First Nation's players at Hawthorn with no adverse findings against Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt.
In a statement attributed to AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh, the representative body claimed the externally commissioned report by Hawthorn and the subsequent independent investigation by the AFL did more harm than good.
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"As an industry, we have legal and moral duties to our players – past, present, and future – to ensure they are physically, mentally, and culturally safe and respected," Marsh said on Wednesday.
"The allegations raised by players and their families as part of Hawthorn's Binmada report were extremely serious and disturbing in nature and required an independent, wide-ranging, well-resourced and culturally safe process."
Marsh admitted the AFLPA was troubled by the investigation following its announcement last September, labelling it "flawed".
"The AFLPA had serious concerns with the AFL's process from the outset. We raised those concerns with the AFL formally, and made our views known publicly," he said.
"While acknowledging the complexity of this issue, in our view, the investigation process was flawed.
"The investigative process was not truly independent of the AFL, as the AFL retained, and ultimately exercised their extensive rights and controls. There was also a lack of clarity for participants as to the process and potential remedies.
"Our industry must get better at preventing and responding to racism and other fundamental human rights concerns."
Marsh announced that together, the AFL and AFLW players, with the AFLPA, had proposed a human rights policy and framework to the AFL as part of the current CBA negotiations.
"Our approach seeks to enhance collaboration across our industry on the key issues impacting our people, including the protection of rights and access to remedy, to create an environment where everyone feels safe," he said.
"The AFLPA's Human Rights Steering Committee and Indigenous Advisory Board will play an active role in informing our ongoing work in these areas and we believe our industry has an opportunity to work more closely together to address these human rights issues for the betterment of the industry and our people moving forward.
"Until this work is done, we hold considerable fears that players and other members of our industry who suffer racism, sexism or other forms of exclusion or discrimination will be hesitant to raise concerns or share their experiences."
Marsh acknowledged the AFL's commitment to several initiatives in light of the termination of the investigation and pledged the AFLPA's support for these actions.
"We have asked the AFL for a clear timeline, process and plan, as well as further information on the additional resources it intends to commit to while undertaking these initiatives and we call on the AFL to work in partnership with the AFLPA on the design, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of these initiatives."
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