Anger over racism

Wednesday, September 18, 1996 - 10:00

Anger over racism

By Kathy Newnam

BRISBANE — Racist comments made last week by Queensland Liberal Party backbencher Ted Radke have caused anger among students at MacGregor State High School.

Radke told school cleaners in his electorate that MacGregor High was the only school which would confront possible health problems such as hepatitis A if it used private contractors to clean the school. According to Brisbane's Courier-Mail, Radke said this was because of the large number of Aboriginal and Asian students enrolled there.

Green Left Weekly spoke to a number of MacGregor students, who said that Radke's comments had bought the school closer together. "Everyone is united against these kinds of ideas", commented one student. "There will always be people like that out there, but lots of people really like MacGregor because it is multicultural."

From GLW issue 247