Offer to drop QUT race ‘slur’ case for $5000
A woman seeking $247,470 in a uni racial vilification row offered to drop students from the case in return for $5000.
A woman seeking $247,470 in a racial vilification row against academics, jobless students and a top Queensland university offered to drop students from the case in return for $5000 payments.
The Australian can reveal that at least two students, who were accused by indigenous woman Cindy Prior of racial vilification over their posts on a QUT Facebook page in May 2013, accepted confidential settlement offers and were removed from the legal case in the Federal Circuit Court.
The Brisbane students — including one who wrote that racial segregation at the university’s Oodgeroo Unit, a computer lab for indigenous students, encouraged division and was “more retarded than a women’s collective” — emphatically reject allegations of racism.
They settled, as they could not afford the legal costs to defend themselves in the case, which is relying on the controversial section 18C of federal race discrimination laws.
The students did not want to be unfairly linked to racism, which would damage their reputations and job prospects, according to senior sources.
One Brisbane student still being sued in the court proceedings, Calum Thwaites, 24, was told by Ms Prior’s solicitor, Susan Moriarty, in a legal letter: “Our client is prepared to discontinue her complaint of racial vilification against you and agree to confidentiality in consideration of your payment to her of the sum of $5000.”
Neither Ms Moriarty nor Ms Prior returned calls from The Australian.
Ms Prior was working as an administration officer at QUT’s Oodgeroo Unit at its Gardens Point campus when three students walked in to access the computers, which were not being used. Ms Prior asked the students whether they were indigenous, and turned them away when they confirmed they were not. The fee-paying students were concerned racial segregation was being practised. Subsequent posts on a QUT Facebook page protested against the decision to turn them away. One student wrote: “Just got kicked out of the unsigned indigenous computer room. QUT (is) stopping segregation with segregation.”
The posts triggered a formal complaint to the Human Rights Commission and then a $247,470 claim in the Federal Circuit Court which names three QUT staff — professor Anita Lee Hong, equity director Mary Kelly and lecturer Sharon Hayes — as well as five students and QUT in a racial vilification case that cites section 18C.
Ms Kelly, who is indigenous, attempted to resolve Ms Prior’s complaints at an early stage, telling her: “With the small amount of contact I’ve had with the students, it is clear that these students aren’t racist. There is no white supremacy group at QUT.”
Ms Prior could not work for two years and said she had suffered offence and injury from the incident.
Mr Thwaites, who is studying to be a high school teacher, said yesterday: “I can’t afford a $5000 settlement, but I didn’t write the one comment that was attributed to me. I can’t even pay $1000 to be honest. I shouldn’t have to pay anything because it wasn’t me.
“This whole thing has completely smeared my reputation. If people look me up online they will think ‘that’s the guy who was racist’. I’m not a racist and I would never in my life write a comment like the one I’m accused of.
“I’ve been confused, stressed and angry about it. I’m an upstanding citizen and I just want my name cleared. If you type my name into Facebook there have been multiple accounts set up with photos of me, but only one is mine. I didn’t post the comment ‘ITT niggers’ and I have repeatedly explained this.”
Mr Thwaites, who hopes to graduate at the end of next year, was told by Ms Prior’s solicitor he had 14 days to accept her settlement offer of $5000. He said he had explained at a legal conference with her that he had nothing to do with the Facebook post, and was backed up by Facebook.
Due to his lack of funds he represented himself in the Federal Circuit Court. “It was incredibly stressful,’’ he said. “I told the judge: ‘I didn’t write it and I don’t know who did — I’ve been impersonated on Facebook’.”
Mr Thwaites said he believed section 18C, which makes it unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” another person or group of people because of their race, colour or ethnic origin, needed to be changed urgently to prevent it being used unfairly. “I think it’s unjust,’’ he said.
“I get why some people like 18C but it’s really easy to take offence, and you are not going to say anything if this is going to be the result. People who don’t understand 18C would be sympathetic about keeping it, but … most people have said something they thought harmless on the internet that could potentially be a violation of 18C.”
QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake said yesterday the Oodgeroo Unit provided dedicated support and services to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, adding that these were “not in any way a form of segregation or discrimination”.
Professor Coaldrake said they were not inconsistent with discrimination laws. Asked if the unit was officially off-limits to non-indigenous students, he said: “The … spaces are generally reserved for indigenous students.” The unit cost $2.72 million to run last year, $2.42m of which came from federal indigenous support programs.
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