In an unexpected backdown, the Queensland University of Technology agreed in the Federal Court on July 12 to continue paying the salaries of the two lecturers who were suspended after they criticised a documentary titled Laughing at the Disabled: Creating Comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains, produced by QUT PhD student Michael Noonan.
Dr Gary MacLennan and Dr John Hookham were suspended without pay for six months and banned from the university's Gardens Point campus on the grounds that they personally denigrated Noonan in an article in the April 11 Australian newspaper.
The documentary, which is not available for public viewing, exposes two intellectually disabled men to situations and questions during which they are seen to be confused and uncomfortable. MacLennan is alleged to have said to Noonan, "I have a handicapped child and I pray to God that my child never comes into contact with someone like you".
QUT has agreed to continue paying the academics until an October trial. If QUT wins the case, the academics will have to repay the wages they have received in the intervening period.
A QUT student campaign in support of MacLennan and Hookham is being conducted on a platform of defending freedom of speech. Organisations representing disabled people have also come on board, bringing the issue of the rights of the disabled into the campaign.
The significance for all universities of the outcome of this case is evident in Justice Jeffrey Spender's remark on July 12: "I regard this as a very important case which will address the nature of a university and what a university ought to be all about."
Students, staff, disability rights advocates and their supporters will hold a protest action at QUT's Open Day at the Gardens Point campus on July 29 from 10am.