Tribunal rules Alice Springs bartender racistly refused service to Aboriginal man Rex Sultan

A former bartender at the Gap View Hotel in Alice Springs refused service to an Aboriginal man who she wrongly claimed “smelt” and was “unhygienic”, a tribunal has found

The Gap View Hotel in Alice Springs.

A FORMER bartender at the Gap View Hotel in Alice Springs refused service to an Aboriginal man who she wrongly claimed “smelt” and was “unhygienic”, a tribunal has found.

The Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week upheld a complaint that bartender Angel Batt unlawfully discriminated against Rex Sultan when she refused service to him in August 2017.

The pub was held liable for Ms Batt’s actions but Ms Batt now faces the prospect of a hefty fine or a stint behind bars after failing to attend a tribunal hearing she was summonsed to in June.

The tribunal heard Mr Sultan was neatly-dressed and freshly showered on the night of August 25, 2017 when Ms Batt refused service to he and his wife, Trephina, saying he needed to “go home and have a shower and come back”.

Mr Sultan was left deeply upset, and later lodged a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Commission.

Gap View Hotel co-owner Ray Loechel.

Tribunal president Richard Bruxner found Ms Batt’s claim that Mr Sultan, rather than another customer, smelt bad was “more than just a ‘mistake’ on her part”.

“It was a product of an assumption by her that he was most likely the source of the smell,” Mr Bruxner said.

“(It) was an assumption Ms Batt made because Mr Sultan is Aboriginal.”

Ms Batt told the tribunal she also said Ms Sultan had “bad hygiene” and asked her to leave “just to make it fair” and because Aboriginal people “get angry” and “start fighting” when one of them is refused service but not another.

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“When I kick out an Aboriginal person, they tend to get angry at their other kind and then they start fighting to it’s better if I just do it all together,” Ms Batt said.

Mr Bruxner said Ms Batt showed “a tendency … to ascribe characteristics to people solely on account of their being Aboriginal”.

Mr Bruxner said he was “satisfied that Ms Batt refused to supply good, services or facilities to Mr Sultan and treated Mr Sultan less favourably … because she believed he had a characteristic, namely poor hygiene or bad body odour, she associated with Aboriginal people.”

Di Loechel, co-owner of the Gap View Hotel.

After a hearing in February, Ms Batt sent an email to the tribunal saying, among other things: “ … when I started at the gap (sic) I was only shown and told to kick out aboriginal (sic) people i (sic) was never a racist until I had come and worked at the Gapview (sic) hotel …”.

“ … the ones that you should be called (sic) racists is the pub itself.”

Mr Bruxner said he could not take Ms Batt’s email into account because it would be unfair for the pub’s lawyers to not be able to cross-examine her on her claims.

Ms Batt did not attend a June hearing despite being served with a summons, and attempts to contact her failed.

Failure to comply with a summons carries a maximum penalty of $15,400 or six months jail.

The case returns to the tribunal on August 30.