Legal Threat Over Racist Article

A lawyer for Australia’s Sudanese community has threatened a Victorian university with legal action if it publishes an article by a controversial Sydney-based law professor.

Called ‘Rethinking the White Australia Policy?, the 6,800-word article was written by Associate Professor Andrew Fraser, who’s been banned from teaching at Sydney’s Macquarie University after making racist remarks.

The Canadian-born academic wrote a letter to his local suburban newspaper in July, claiming Australia was becoming a Third World colony by allowing non-white immigration.

He claimed Africans had low IQs and that their migration increased crime.

Prof Fraser said “a rising ruling class of Asians” threatened the social, political and economic interests of “ordinary” Australians, and he also publicly supported an anti-refugee campaign by neo-Nazi group White Pride Coalition.

Lawyer George Newhouse today warned Deakin University to scrap plans to publish Prof Fraser’s contentious views in its next law journal.

“I am shocked that a university would even want to publish something along these lines,” he said.

“I put the university on notice that if they repeat the racial vilification, a claim for compensation may be made against the university and the editors that publish or republish this poison.”

Mr Newhouse said he had already commenced proceedings on behalf of the Sudanese Darfurian community in the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

“In respect of Mr Fraser’s racial vilification surely it is not appropriate to publish his slander whilst proceedings are on foot,” Mr Newhouse said.

“If the journal persists in publishing racial vilification they would be joining in the racial vilification.”

A spokesperson from Deakin University said there were no plans to scrap the article.

“At this stage it is one of the articles that will be included the October edition,” he said.

Prof Fraser’s work was assessed by two respected academics before it was accepted, the spokesman said.

“Because the law journal is a legal publication of some standing, the articles are peer reviewed,” he said.

“They might not agree or disagree with the content, but they see this work as a considered position of some academic standing.”

But Mr Newhouse said the work promoted racism and intolerance.

“This is not about academic freedom, it goes to the heart of the right of all Australians to live together in peace and harmony,” he said.