Judge dismisses case against QUT students over 18C

The Human Rights Commission and its chief earn a scathing rebuke as a judge rejects a race-hate complaint.

Queensland University of Technology students Alex Wood, left, and Calum Thwaites after the ruling last night. Picture: Joseph Byford

A judge has thrown out a racial hatred­ case brought against three university students from Queensland over Facebook posts, prompting a scathing rebuke of the Human Rights Commission and its president, Gillian Triggs.

The students from the Queensland University of Technology have been released from the case, in which they were being sued for $250,000 in damages by indigenous QUT staffer Cindy Prior. Federal Circuit Court judge Mich­ael Jarrett ruled late yesterday that they had no case to answer.

Alex Wood, Jackson Powell and Calum Thwaites told The Weekend Australian they were ­“incredibly relieved” at the ­collapse of Ms Prior’s action under section 18C of the Racial Discrim­ination Act.

But they said the experience — which had escalated since May 28, 2013, from a seemingly trivial incid­ent at QUT to the Human Rights Commission and then the Federal Circuit Court — had caused them unnecessary stress and worry as they fought to clear their names and deny false accusations of racism, and even a connection to American white suprem­acist group the Ku Klux Klan.

The students and their lawyers, Tony Morris QC and Michael Henry, issued a plea to politicians to uphold free speech by abolishing section 18C. They said the law was being used as a weapon to limit free speech and as a tool to extract money in a “legal shakedown” of people who preferred to pay confidential settlements ­rather than risk a public fight to prove they were not racist.

Other students accused of ­racism for their Facebook posts were dropped earlier from Ms Prior’s legal proceedings, run by Brisbane solicitor Susan Moriarty, after making confidential payments. Neither Ms Prior nor her solicitor was in court yesterday.

Judge Jarrett comprehensively dismissed the proceedings against the three remaining students ­yesterday, effectively exonerating them of any wrongdoing.

He ruled that Mr Wood had posted “an accurate statement of fact” when the student wrote on Facebook: “Just got kicked out of the unsigned indigenous com­puter room”.

Gillian Triggs was heavily criticised after the ruling.

Judge Jarrett said it was “difficult to see how … that statement was likely to infringe the prescript­ion of section 18C”. He ruled that Mr Wood had made a statement of opinion when he also posted on Facebook “QUT stopping segregation with segregation?”

Judge Jarrett said the sentences were a comment with racial under­tones about QUT having a computer room “from which ­people who are not indigenous are excluded by reason of their race or ethnicity” — but he ruled it was not reasonably likely to offend, ­insult, humiliate or intimidate someone. “This is so because Mr Wood’s words were directed to QUT and its actions, and Mr Wood’s words were rallying against discrimination,’’ Judge Jarrett said.

Mr Powell’s Facebook post — “I wonder where the white sup­remacist computer lab is” — was, Judge Jarrett found, a “poor ­attempt at humour” but incapable of being unlawful under section 18C. Judge Jarrett accepted that the third student, Mr Thwaites, had not posted the word “nigger”. Ms Prior had not produced any evidence to the contrary.

Outside the Federal Circuit Court, Mr Morris launched a blistering attack on the human rights body and Professor Triggs for ­allowing the case to escalate.

He said it was a tragedy for the students as it had exposed them to enormous strain. He said Ms Prior, who will be pursued for costs, was also a victim of what he described as the commission’s “incompetence” for its failure to throw the case out at an early stage.

He said Professor Triggs drew a $400,000-plus salary but had ­failed to do her job, which was to ­inquire properly into 18C cases and dismiss them if they lacked substance. Mr Morris said Professor Triggs should have told Ms Prior and her legal team that their case was “completely hopeless’’.

He said if Professor Triggs had “any decency” she would hand her resignation to Attorney-­General George Brandis on Monday.

Professor Triggs last night declined to respond to the criticisms but said that the human rights body “fully respects the decision” of the court.

Read the judgment in full

Cindy Prior said she feared physical assault after the Facebook posts.

Mr Thwaites said: “I’m very happy and very relieved — this was a long time coming and now I want to get on with my study and my career and my life.”

His mother, Tina Thwaites, said: “You would not believe the trauma he has been through with this. We are just so glad it’s over.”

QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake said in a brief statement that the university was “pleased the matter is now resolved as far as the three students are concerned and regrets that the issue has taken so long to come to a conclusion for them”. Professor Coaldrake ­offered no comment on whether the university viewed section 18C as an impediment to free speech.

Ms Prior could not be reached for comment. She had previously described feeling “at risk of immin­ent but unpredictable physical or verbal assault” after reading the Facebook posts. The former admin­istrative officer at the university’s indigenous-only comput­er lab gave sworn evidence that she had “nightmares, fear and sweating”, and felt “unsafe and frightened to return to work”.

Ms Prior, a member of the Noongar nation, said in an affid­avit: “I could not understand how or why the students had not ­already been suspended or discip­lined. I felt as though I had personally been found ridiculous for fearing physical assault and a KKK presence in the university.

“I feel completely let down by all the people involved in this episode. It ended my career and my tertiary studies.

“I was unwell for a very long time, unable to go outside my home, hospitalised for panic ­attacks and reduced to living off $450 a week for nearly two years. I am deeply disappointed that my private case has now become public, and I have been publicly vilified by people I don’t even know or who know me, or who don’t know the full story which led to the ending of my career at QUT.”

The case, which grew into a test of the public’s view of the controv­ersial section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, came before Judge Jarrett after it failed to ­resolve in the Human Rights Commission. The court heard that the Facebook posts could not possibly have caused “offence, insult, humiliation or intimidation which has profound and serious effects, not to be likened to mere slights”.

Judge Jarrett was told by Mr Morris there was “nothing ­inherently offensive, insulting, ­humiliating or intimidating” about the words.

Mr Wood, now an engineer, had started the Facebook conversation after he was ejected from the computer lab by Ms Prior ­because he was not indigenous.