Telstra strips “coffee king” of award following anti-gay tirade
Image: Phillip Di Bella
TELSTRA have rescinded their award given to Brisbane “coffee king” Phillip Di Bella, following a foul-mouthed tirade on social media last week that featured a slew of homophobic language.
Di Bella, who started and owns the national coffee business of the same name, was the recipient of Telstra’s Queensland Business of the Year Awards that was presented to him last week on June 17.
Last week Di Bella faced a public backlash following comments posted to his social media accounts during the second State of Origin match on June 18.
“F*** off you c***sucker commentators!!! Stand up and give yourself a head job and the refs!!!” Di Bella wrote in one of the expletive-ridden posts during the match.
In the fallout of those social media posts, Di Bella personally contacted the Star Observer to apologise profusely for his comments.
“I want to sincerely offer my heartfelt apology to the LGBTI community for my poorly thought-out remarks and for any offence that may have been taken,” Di Bella said last week.
READ MORE: Brisbane coffee king apolgises for homophobic Origin outburst on social media
However, Telstra chief executive David Thodey took to Twitter earlier today to condemn Di Bella’s comments (see below) and say that his views did not reflect Telstra’s core principles of LGBTI inclusion and acceptance.
Following Thodey’s tweet this morning, Di Bella’s Twitter account, which was previously publicly viewable, was found to be set to private.
“We are extremely disappointed by Mr Di Bella’s comments. They do not reflect Telstra’s values nor those of the Telstra Business Awards and were completely inappropriate,” a Telstra spokesperson said.
“Regrettably, as a result we have spoken with Mr Di Bella and informed him of our decision to withdraw the award.
“While we note that Mr Di Bella has apologised for the comments, we believe in creating and promoting a culture of inclusion and respect and we expect our Award winners, as role models and leaders in the business community, to uphold these values.”
Telstra has consistently scored well in Pride in Diversity’s Australia Workplace Equality Index. In 2011, they were in the top 10.
In 2012, Di Bella also stated he supported the use of child labour on coffee plantations in South America.
A statement from Di Bella’s company was released shortly after Telstra’s announcement, expressing disappointment at the award being stripped from them.
“The comments made by Phillip Di Bella in no way represent the views or business practices of Di Bella Coffee and we do not support any comments that were made on his personal social media accounts last week,” a company spokesperson said in the statement.
“Phillip has issued a personal apology to the Di Bella Coffee Team.
“Di Bella Coffee would also like to apologise to our hardworking and dedicated staff. While Telstra has stripped us of our award, we would like to take this opportunity to tell you that your hard work and success over the years has not gone unnoticed.”
Di Bella himself has also released a statement in response, where he reiterated his apology.
“Comments made on my personal Facebook page are not reflective of Di Bella Coffee’s views, clients or business practices and I am disappointed that they have been represented in this way,” he stated.
“There is no excuse for my behaviour or my comments and I would like to deeply apologise to anyone who I have offended, it was never my intention to upset or insult anyone.”
Prior to Telstra’s rescinding of Di Bella’s award, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk both stated that they were standing by the man who holds a few key positions on several state and local government advisory boards. Di Bella has also made donations to the Liberal National Party.
Newman rejected calls to review Di Bella’s positions in Queensland Tourism and Events and on the Premier’s Advisory Board, and any personal associations he has with Di Bella.
“No review will be held. Mr Di Bella has apologised for his comments. He has obviously learnt a valuable lesson regarding posting on social media,” a spokesperson for the Premier said.
Di Bella also holds key positions on a council board, the CBD Economic Development Board and the council-funded Brisbane Marketing.
Quirk echoed the Premier’s sentiment and defended Di Bella as a “prominent Brisbane businessman” and highlighted his recent Telstra award.
“Mr Di Bella’s comments do not reflect council’s views and bear no alignment to his responsibilities for the CBD Economic Development Board,” a spokesperson for the Lord Mayor said.
“Local businessman Phil Di Bella, whose business was recently recognised as Telstra Queensland Business of the Year 2014, has been nominated to Chair the CBD Economic Development Board – which is a voluntary, unpaid position.”
Meanwhile, Brisbane Council opposition leader Cr Milton Dick urged the Lord Mayor to stand Di Bella down from his positions within council, saying that his views were “offensive and vulgar” and not appropriate for a man of his standing and someone charged with selling Brisbane to the world.
“This is a question of the Lord Mayor’s judgement and I question the suitability of Mr Di Bella for this role.” Cr Dick said.
The Star Observer has contacted the Premier and Lord Mayor for further comment regarding Telstra’s decision to rescind his recent business award.
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It’s what’s IMPLIED by his comments rather than what he actually said. And this is often the case. He could have chosen to call the ref a “turd”, a “maggot” or any other of a number of derogatory things, but he chose to say that he was a “cocksucker” – which implies that a man who sucks cocks is somehow a lesser person than men who don’t, and he could have used any number of other comments to refer to the commentators, but he chose to refer to them as being gay, as if that made them lesser human beings for some reason.
You don’t have to target gay people in particular to be offensive to gay people.
It is interesting profits from Optus are used to jail us, while profits from Telstra are used to help us.
The Singapore government is a horrific human rights abuser. Homosexual acts are punished by jailing people for years. Sadly, the Singapore government owns Optus. The Optus marketing of friendly little creatures is at odds with the reality of the Singapore government that does great cruelty.
At least Telstra has some values!
Gay or not, comments like that should never be sprayed out in public, it is offensive to everyone when someone lets out with aggressive comments about anything. He deserves to get the award revoked, he is the name of the company and therefore representing them. Apologies mean nothing, that only happens when they are caught out and want to take back what has been said, this is impossible and meaningless. It’s not that difficult, never say anything that is hurtful about anyone and keep your aggressiveness to yourself. I’d suggest his company be boycotted to teach him some manners.
His comments weren’t anti gay, they were just tirades from a couch potato sports watcher. Let’s not get overly PC now boys and girls.
Tamar Iveri – Crazy homophobic awful human
Phillip de Bella – Bogan, who clearly thinks about gay sex too much
His comment was anti gay.
When you hear the word “cocksucker” what group of people do you automatically think of? What was his intention? Was he commending or condemning? He was chose his words to hurt and the biggest insult he could muster was calling the Gay.
Oops apologies re: grammatical errors. No editing options available.
The comments were highly inappropriate but this seems a bit harsh. He apologized, does that not count for anything?
The LBGT-Equality movement has become a pedestal for the larger community to espouse their own hatreds; the hatred of not fitting in. Gender equality has become a witch hunt for homophobes.
I don’t see his comments at Anti-Gay. They are just vulgar.
These were stupid and vulgar comments, but are they really anti gay?