Fundraising halted for 'Aussie battler' as public raise $60,000
A crowd-funding campaign for an Aussie 'hero' has been halted as the fundraisers decide what to do with the money after it emerged he had a string of criminal convictions.
Duncan Storrar became an overnight celebrity after appearing on ABC's Q&A programme when he questioned politicians about tax policies and explained how their decisions meant he couldn’t afford to take his girls to the movies.
After his appearance on the programme Samuel Fawcett and Nicholas Oliver set up a GoFundMe page for Mr Storrar and $60,000 was quickly raised.
But after News Corp published revelations that Mr Storrar had been in prison on three separate occasions, the organisers asked for people to stop donating.
"We also reckon its time to put a halt on any more donations. It turns out there’s no limit to Australians’ generosity, but there is a limit to our ability to manage your contributions!" the pair wrote on the GoFundMe page on Thursday.
They explained that Mr Storrar was struggling with the media attention and plans to take some time away, he was also feeling a bit “freaked out”.
The news comes a day after his estranged son Aztec Major said Mr Storrar was 'not who he makes (himself) out to be' and he claimed it was his father who got him hooked on drugs as a teenager.
News Corp reports that Mr Storrar spent three months in prison in 2003 after making a threat to kill someone and committing multiple breaches of an intervention order.
Mr Major, whose mother died of breast cancer when he was young, said his father did not deserve the generous donations given to him.
“He doesn’t deserve it. He’s used drugs. He’s not the person he’s making himself out to be,” he said.
Mr Major, 20, moved in with Mr Storrar when he was 17 to try and strengthen their bond.
“I guess I wanted to get to know him but it was while I was living with him, he was using drugs, and I got addicted with him and that was the start of my downward spiral.”
In a desperate bid to turn his life around, Mr Major cut all ties with his father.
“I came to the conclusion the best solution was to cut all the crap out of my life. I had to cut him out. I sort of see him as the kind of person I don’t want to be.”
He has since started an apprenticeship as a spray painter in Geelong and works hard to keep himself “out of trouble”.
Mr Major believes that all the money donated would be better off going to charity instead of his dad’s pocket.
“The public should know what kind of person he is. It’s good that people want to give money but they should give it to a good cause. I don’t need it. I’m working now. The Cancer Council would be my suggestion.”
The daughter of Mr Storrar’s ex-partner Cindy Lee, agrees with Mr Major, saying she grew up around Mr Storrar and 'didn’t want people giving away their well-earned money to a man who does not deserve it'.
“There are lots of things he has done that upset me,” Ms Drew told The Australian.
“I saw things as a kid living with him from when I was seven that I shouldn’t have to see.”
In Monday night's episode of Q&A, Mr Storrar left Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer fumbling for words when he asked a simple question.
“If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life. That means that I get to say to my little girls: ‘Daddy’s not broke this weekend. We can go to the pictures’.
"Rich people don’t even notice their tax-free threshold lift. Why don’t I get it? Why do they get it?”
Mr Storrar told the organizer of the GoFundMe page that he wanted to set up a fund for his kids’ future education and might make some private donations.
