Hot off the wire:
Academic sorry for racist remarks
By Alyssa Braithwaite
August 30, 2006 12:31amA SYDNEY academic who created a racial furore by claiming African refugees were linked to high crime rates has apologised for his comments.
Macquarie University Associate Professor Andrew Fraser sparked the racial controversy in June last year when his letter making the remarks was published in local newspaper, the Parramatta Sun.
The university subsequently suspended him from teaching after he made further comments about Sudanese refugees and non-white immigration.
Safi Hareer from the Sudanese Darfurian Union sought a public apology from Prof Fraser in a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), saying the academic’s letter had breached the Racial Discrimination Act.
Prof Fraser received a letter from HREOC president John von Doussa in April saying his comments were unlawful, and rejecting the professor’s submission that the letter held academic merit.
Mr von Doussa invited Prof Fraser to a HREOC conciliation with Mr Hareer, urging him to apologise for the letter.
At the time Prof Fraser said an apology “was out of the question”.
But Mr Hareer’s lawyer, George Newhouse, said Prof Fraser had apologised to his client and the matter had been settled.
A public apology will also be published in the Parramatta Sun newspaper today.
“After mediation, Prof Fraser agreed to apologise to Mr Hareer and to the Sudanese community in Australia,” Mr Newhouse said.
Mr Newhouse said Prof Fraser had acknowledged that he had hurt fellow Australians.
“Andrew Fraser has apologised for his hurtful statements and Safi Hareer has accepted his apology,” he said.
“(Mr Hareer) was really pleased that two people with different views could sit down and discuss and resolve their differences in a human way, man to man.
“All credit to (Prof Fraser) for apologising, and I’m glad it was done without going to court because really, no-one wants to do that.”
Prof Fraser could not be contacted last night.
