Nine News | May 22, 2002

ATSIC made an official complaint to Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Commission about racist leaflets allegedly distributed by a white supremacist group in Rockhampton.

David Wragge, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission’s central Queensland chairman, said the leaflets should become a test case for the state’s new racial vilification legislation.

Under amendments to anti-discrimination laws last year, the Beattie Government outlawed the use of racial and religious hatred to incite violence.

The new laws make unlawful any public statements that incite hatred towards, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of a person or group on the basis of race or religion.

The leaflets were allegedly distributed by the Rockhampton chapter of the US-based World Church of the Creator [now the Church of Creativity], dedicated to the survival, expansion and advancement of the white race.

They refer to an Aboriginal cancer and foreign influences bleeding Australia to death and list a Rockhampton postal address.

Mr Wragge said in a letter to Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Karen Walters the leaflets were discriminatory and an incitement to racial hatred.

“I am personally offended and affected by this material,” he said.

“It is my understanding of the laws in Queensland that it is now a criminal offence to do these sorts of thing.

“This is the time to have them applied. I ask that the commission does all in its power to see this happen.”

Mr Wragge made it clear the leaflets were not a reflection on the wider community in Rockhampton.

“This is about a fringe group with extremist views,” he said.

“This is not about the ordinary citizens of Central Queensland.”

Ms Walters said earlier this week the commission was made aware of the leaflets and was monitoring the church’s website.

She said members of the church faced prosecution if caught distributing the leaflets.

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