Craig Foster is a former Australian football player who has become a respected sports broadcaster, social justice advocate, and human rights campaigner. He is a member of the Australian Multicultural Council and works on various social programs, including refugee advocacy. He has been recognised for his humanitarian activism, including his work to free Bahraini refugee Hakeem al-Araibi and to resettle refugees detained by Australia. Craig is also an author, co-author of several books, and an Adjunct Professor of Sport and Social Responsibility with Torrens University. Recently, he has been recognized as Australian Father of the Year and NSW Australian of the Year 2023.
Members and their guests are welcome! Members tickets are complimentary. Guests tickets are available for $132 each (inclusive of gst).
Craig will be speaking on “From Socceroo to Activist.”
Former Socceroo | Broadcaster | Adjunct Professor, Sport & Social Responsibility | Author | Human Rights Activist
Following a decorated football career as Australia’s 419th Socceroo and 40th Captain, Craig has become one of Australia’s most respected sportspeople as a broadcaster, a social justice advocate and a human rights campaigner.
As a member of the Australian Multicultural Council, Craig works across a vast range of social programs from indigenous rights and self-determination, homelessness and domestic violence, climate action and gender equality and is particularly well known for his refugee advocacy.
He is also an Ambassador for Amnesty Australia, an advisory council member of the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW, and a Director of the Crescent Foundation.
His humanitarian activism extends to several, high profile campaigns including #SaveHakeem to free Bahraini refugee Hakeem al-Araibi from a Thai prison for which he was a Finalist for the Australian Human Rights Commission Medal, and #GameOver to call for the resettlement and freedom of over 400 refugees and asylum seekers indefinitely detained by Australia in PNG, Nauru and in Australian hotels (Alternative Places of Detention) for over seven years.
He is an author and co-author of several books including ‘Fighting for Hakeem’, and writes for the Guardian, The Age and other publications.
In 2019, Craig was recognised by the Australian Financial Review as a ‘True Australian Leader’ and the Sydney Morning Herald as one of the ‘People that Defined 2019′. In 2020, he was the recipient of the NSW Government Humanitarian Award for his work with sport and human rights, was awarded the Australian Muslim Council 2020 Abyssinian Medal and an Australian Human Rights Commission Medal finalist. In 2021, Craig became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) which he dedicated to and shared with his refugee friends and former Manus Island detainees, Moz Azimitibar and Farhad Bandesh, and Hakeem al-Araibi as well as all refugees seeking safety around the world.
In 2021, working with Australia’s Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke and Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, Craig used his sporting and political connections to secure the safety of many Afghans. This included the evacuation of around one hundred predominantly female Afghans from Kabul including the Afghan National Women’s Football Team and Taekwondo athletes, Afghanistan’s several Paralympians who went on to compete at the Tokyo Paralympic Games weeks later and a group of fifteen girls who hid while the Taliban searched for them and ultimately found safety in Australia and are the subject of the moving film, ‘Die. or Die trying: Escaping the Taliban.’
Today, Craig covers the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League for Stan Sport Australia. He also advises on athlete activism for some of Australia’s most prominent sportspeople. Craig holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), Master’s Degree in International Sports Management and a Postgraduate Degree in Football Management, and is an Adjunct Professor of Sport and Social Responsibility with Torrens University, Australia where he has developed an online course called ‘Sport for Good’ which teaches athletes and sport practitioners how to utilise sport for social justice and progressive issues around the world.
Craig was recognised as Australian Father of the Year in September 2022, and more recently, the NSW Australian of the Year 2023.
Catholic Business Connections (CBC) is an opportunity for business women and men in our diocese (active and retired) who share common values, to network and engage with each other and leaders representing the diocese. CBC gathers three times a year for lunch and to listen to guest speakers chosen to inspire with their unique story and share how they relate their work and spiritual life experience to the context of living in a modern world. Members are also invited to attend Bishop Brian’s End of Year Thank You Gathering.
Account means the account held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited.
Agreement means this Direct Debit Request Service Agreement between you and us, including the direct debit request.
Business day means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a listed public holiday.
Debit day means the day that payment is due.
Debit payment means a particular transaction where a debit is made, according to your direct debit request.
Direct debit request means the Direct Debit Request between us and you.
Us and we and our means the Catholic Development Fund.
You means the customer(s) who signed the direct debit request. Your financial institution is the financial institution where you hold the account that you have authorised us to arrange to debit.
Debiting your account
By submitting a direct debit request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account according to the agreement we have with you.
We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account:
As authorised in the direct debit request; if the debit day falls on a day that is not a business day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following or previous business day. If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, please check with your financial
Changes by you
If you wish to stop or defer a debit payment you must write to us at least 5 business days before the next debit day.
This notice should be given to us in the first instance.
Your obligations
It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made.
If there are insufficient clear funds available in your account to meet a debit payment:
you or your account may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
you or your account may be charged a fee to reimburse us for charges we have incurred for the failed transaction;
you must arrange for the payment to be made by another method
Please check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.
Dispute
If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account you should call us on 1800 047 703 and confirm the details in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly.
Accounts
You should check:
with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your accounts offered by financial
your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
with your financial institution before completing the direct debit request if you have any queries about how to complete the direct debit
Warning: if the account number you have quoted is incorrect, you may be charged a fee to reimburse our costs in correcting any deductions from:
an account you do not have authority to operate; or
an account you do not
Confidentiality
We will keep any information (including your account details) in your direct debit request confidential.
We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you, do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.
However, we may use your contact details to provide information about the fund. Should you wish this not to be the case, please advise the fund in writing.
Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.
