Past and present board members of the Luke Batty Foundation have rallied behind founder Rosie Batty after commentator and former Labor leader Mark Latham attacked the former Australian of the Year.
Latham, who claims domestic violence is used as a "coping mechanism", said yesterday in a broadcast on 2GB that there was $135,000 missing from the foundation's accounts and that Batty was a bully whose behaviour had led to a number of resignations on the board and in the foundation.
![During her year as AOTY, Rosie Batty spoke on more than 300 occasions and continues this engagement, from community ...](/web/20161105013126im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/h/z/r/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsf5f0.png/1477971797444.jpg)
But past and present board members have categorically denied Latham's claims.
Both the current chair of the board, Andrew Fairley, and the former co-chair, Chris Atmore, say there has been no financial impropriety of any kind.
![Mark Latham, whose claims on 2GB that Rosie Batty is a bully and there is $135,000 missing from her foundation have been ...](/web/20161105013126im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/k/3/y/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsf5f0.png/1477971797444.jpg)
Batty became a campaigner against domestic violence after her son Luke was murdered by his father at cricket practice in February 2014. The foundation is a platform for education around the significant problems of family violence in Australia.
And it wasn't easy for Batty. She was appointed Australian of the Year at the beginning of 2015, less than a year after Luke was killed.
Former Australia Day Council chief executive Jeremy Lasek said on Monday: "It is unfortunate that someone who has changed the nation so much for the better; for no personal gain at all and coming out of a great tragedy, should be facing crazy suggestions like this.
"Our nation owes her a huge debt and nothing less."
Latham claimed that whistleblowers had provided him with documents claiming financial mismanagement. He said: "Any organisation where there's a treasurer reporting a missing $135,000 you'd have to be concerned."
But the former treasurer of the Luke Batty Foundation, Anthea West, a practising tax accountant with 30 years' experience who resigned from the board earlier this year, denied there was any missing money. She also refuted Latham's claim that she had resigned because of a problem with the accounts. West confirmed she resigned because the workload of the new foundation was more than she could fit into the one day she had allocated to the role of treasurer.
"I resigned because I was doing all the administration as well as all the donation receipting," says West.
Latham did not interview West about his claims.
Chairman of the board Andrew Fairley AM, a lawyer with significant governance experience who chaired the Law Council of Australia Superannuation Committee for 10 years, said in a statement: "I am satisfied that there has been no financial misconduct on the part of Rosie Batty or any others on her behalf regarding foundation assets."
The foundation has been the subject of two independent financial audits.
Board member and chief executive of Domestic Violence NSW, Moo Baulch, said she would stake her reputation on Batty's honesty. Co-board member, Judith Whelan, former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald who begins her new role this month as head of spoken content at the ABC, also confirmed she had confidence in Batty.
Latham said that money in a private account was used to fund Batty during her time as Australian of the Year. Unlike other AOTYs, Batty did not have any financial support during her tenure. The Pratt Foundation is on the record as having donated money to assist her during this period.
But yesterday, Latham claimed that: "We know for a fact that many of those speaking engagements were through a celebrity speakers bureau where she was raising $5000 a pop, so if you're raising private money and using money to pay your expenses through the foundation, or donations that were intended for the foundation, obviously there's an issue there."
A spokesperson for Batty's speaking agency, Keynote Speaking, says Batty does about 80 per cent of her engagements pro bono. During her year as AOTY, she spoke on more than 300 occasions and continues this engagement, from community round tables to keynote speeches.
Latham also said that Batty had been provided with the government car of the Victorian Minister for Women Fiona Richardson. It is on the public record that Batty leads a new Victim Survivors' Advisory Council in Victoria. Such an appointment would include support services such as access to a car and a driver.
A spokesperson for Richardson said on Monday: "To help Rosie Batty fulfil her duties as Australian of the Year 2015, she has on occasion used the ministerial car assigned to the Victorian Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence.
"She is a great Australian and we make no apology for providing her with all necessary support to fulfil her role.
"None of it is adequate compensation for the contribution she has made."
Latham further claimed that staff had left because of bullying. One former employee was "let go", say sources.
This is far from Latham's first attack on Batty. In January he said domestic violence was a tool of a feminist left and rallied against what he called "the curse of political correctness in Australia".