Afghan migrant takes racial abuse action against Centrelink

A MIGRANT has allegedly abused a staff member at a Centrelink office. But it wasn’t because of anything she’d done.

Qurban Ali Hussein

A HAZARA migrant allegedly abused a female staff member at his local Centrelink office and refused to believe she could be a manager because she was not a man.

Qurban Ali Hussein, who has accused Centrelink staff of racially abusing him, yesterday denied telling the Auburn office's boss: “No, you’re not (the manager). The manager is a man.”

The Federal Court was told Mr Hussein said words to the effect of “There is this Aussie bitch and she thinks she is a manager” and “Get the man manager” as a security guard asked him to leave the office in Western Sydney.

But the 33-year-old said he had not made any comments about the Centrelink manager’s sex or called her an “Aussie bitch”.

“There were a lot of witnesses but they would not give their names or testify in court,” he claimed.

The Merrylands father-of-two claimed he was ordered to leave the Centrelink office because of his Hazara ethnicity and had been discriminated against. He was banned from all Centrelink offices for four months.

The Commonwealth denied Centrelink staff racially abused Mr Hussein or demanded he leave because of his race or ethnicity.

Judge Nicholas Manousaridis found staff at the Centrelink office had not breached the Racial Discrimination Act during the incident in February, 2012.

But he said Mr Hussein had “every right to feel humiliated” after he was invited in error by SMS to attend the Centrelink office and then asked to leave.

Originally published as Afghan migrant takes racial abuse action against Centrelink