A NSW man who yelled “I’m going to kill you faggot” during an assault at Sydney’s ARQ nightclub has been fined $10,000 on top of his conviction for assault causing actual bodily harm.
The Newcastle Herald has reported that a man from the suburb of Argenton in Lake Macquarie, New South Wales has been fined by the state’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The tribunal found that Paul Taufaao committed unlawful homosexual vilification when he assaulted David Massa at 3.30am at the ARQ nightclub on September 15, 2014.
Taufaao reportedly told police that he had punched Massa in the mouth after talking to him for 20 minutes, he believed that Massa had touched his cousin’s wife on the dance floor.
Massa fell to the floor and briefly lost consciousness, his friend Simon Margan complained to the state’s Anti-discrimination board after Taufaao allegedly yelled “Fuck off foggot” and “I’m going to kill you faggot” during the assault.
Taufaao was fined $1,100 for the assault and placed under probation and parole for a two year period. The tribunal ordered him to pay an addition $10,000 to Margan for the comments which were ruled to be homosexual vilification.
The tribunal ruled that the man’s comments were more than insults and had the capacity to incite hatred or serious contempt towards the men they were directed at.
“The comments were not merely insults. They had the capacity to incite, or the effect of inciting, ordinary members of the audience to which they were directed, to experience hatred and/or serious contempt for Mr Margan and for homosexual men generally, on the grounds of their homosexuality.”
“The assault on its own could not be said to have been incitement to hatred or serious contempt on the grounds of homosexuality. However, coupled as it was with the words ‘Fuck off faggot’ and ‘I’m going to kill you faggot’, in this context the actions would constitute incitement.”
Taufaao did not attend any of the mediation sessions or the tribunal’s hearing.
Read the full story at The Newcastle Herald.
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights welcome High Court Decision
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) have welcomed a decision by the High Court of Australia to grant special leave to Garry Burns to appeal a NSW Court of Appeal decision that the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) has no power to determine anti-discrimination matters between residents of different States.
The Court of Appeal was asked whether the NCAT could hear and determine a dispute arising under the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) between a resident of New South Wales and a resident of another State.
Burns, an anti-discrimination activist, is a leading campaigner for tackling discrimination based on sexuality and has previously taken on many prominent Australians over their discriminatory comments.
Burns originally wished to enforce orders against two respondents, both who reside in two other States. In both cases NCAT has previously ruled that the defendants had engaged in homosexual vilification in contravention of the NSW Act.
The Court of Appeal decided that a state tribunal such as NCAT is not a “court of a state” and therefore is unable to exercise judicial power to determine matters between residents of two states.
ALHR’s Vice President, Kerry Weste said the decision to allow an appeal on the ruling was an important development that would test how laws work in the age of social media.
“This appeal deals with significant constitutional issues that will affect many jurisdictions across Australia. But, for everyday Australians, they would be wondering why, in the age of social media, a tribunal like NCAT cannot arbitrate and resolve a claim for vilification by a resident of NSW against any other person, regardless of where they reside in Australia.”
“For Mr Burns and the LGBTI community, this case is also of the highest importance because it will indirectly bear upon the NSW homosexual community’s rights to prosecute vilification claims against residents of other States who use technology to communicate across State borders.” Weste said.
“Pending the High Court’s decision and any amendments to the laws of NSW or the Commonwealth, it would seem,” Weste said, “that people in other States can engage in harmful public acts of homosexual vilification with impunity from NSW law so long as the vilification is communicated by a non-resident of NSW across State or Territory borders”.
The legal profession’s human rights organisation said the issue needed to be addressed at a federal level.
“Homosexual vilification is hateful, cruel and harmful and warrants the strongest legal sanctions. Australia should lead in this area of human rights protection. Whatever the decision that eventuates in the High Court, ALHR will request that the Council of Australian Governments tables the constitutional issues arising from Mr Burns’s case, as well as the issue of the need for uniform Australian homosexual vilification laws which can be fully enforced throughout Australia by appropriate courts or tribunals, at its next meeting.”
OIP Staff
