VCAT orders pro-brumby group to apologise to Indigenous head in racial vilification case
Monica Morgan argued that a pro-brumby group had racially vilified her in social media posts and public posters. (Supplied: Doug Gimesy)
In short:
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that a pro-brumby group racially vilified the former chief executive of an Aboriginal corporation through social media posts and posters.
The tribunal has ordered the group to apologise to Monica Morgan, her family and the Yorta Yorta people.
What's next?
The president of the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group has rejected the finding and says she will not apologise.
Victoria's civil and administrative tribunal (VCAT) has found that Monica Morgan, the former chief executive of the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation, was racially vilified by a pro-brumby activist group.
It is the first time that a First Nations person in Victoria has been found to be racially vilified under the state's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.
VCAT found that the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group contravened section 7 of the act, which stated that a person must not incite hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person based on race.
Brumbies are found in two Victorian national parks — Barmah National Park and the Alpine National Park. (ABC News: Greg Nelson)
Ms Morgan's lawyer Virginia Trescowthick, from Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), told the ABC that the brumby group's conduct towards her client spanned from 2019 to late 2023.
"She'd been subjected to years of bullying and intimidation from the feral horse preservation group over the Yorta Yorta nation's support of government policy to remove feral horses from Barmah National Park," Ms Trescowthick said.
EJA said the group had created public posters with Ms Morgan's face and racist slogans, as well as making posts and comments on social media that "incited hatred and serious contempt against her and Yorta Yorta people on the basis of race".
In the September hearing the tribunal ordered the group to remove all the posters that were created, sold, published and circulated with the offending material and to provide a written apology addressed to Ms Morgan, her family and the Yorta Yorta people.
'Vilified all Yorta Yorta people'
The pro-brumby group is opposed to the removal of brumbies from the Barmah National Park, a strategy that Parks Victoria has in place to protect native wetland Moira grass.
The Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation, traditional owners of the area and joint managers of the park, support the policy.
Speaking with Statewide Mornings on ABC Radio on Wednesday, Ms Morgan welcomed the tribunal's decision.
"Not only is it a good decision, it is the first time a decision such as this has been made about a racial vilification," she said.
Ms Morgan said she had brought forward the matter because the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group had significantly targeted her.
But she said it had also impacted others.
"The posters vilified all Yorta Yorta people," she said.
Monica Morgan is the former chief executive of the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation. (ABC News: Jedda Costa)
Ms Morgan said the tribunal’s finding was very significant.
"If VCAT has found for the first time within that tribunal that racial vilification happened, then this is not just a slight matter," she said.
"This is a very serious matter that groups can use this kind of racism to promote their own interest."
Ms Morgan said if the group wanted some of the matters to be put to rest then they would have to apologise.
Setting a precedent
When asked by the ABC if the judgement was a "watershed moment", Ms Trescowthick said it was.
Virginia Trescowthick represented Monica Morgan in the case. (Supplied: Environmental Justice Australia)
"There's also federal law which can be used to protect people from racial vilification, and others have used that, but our understanding is that this is the first time that a First Nations person in Victoria has used the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act — which is Victoria's laws to prevent racial vilification," she said.
"So in that sense, yes, it sets a precedent."
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Ro Allen said while the act has been in operation for over 20 years, "its complexity means it is rarely used successfully".
The commission said it could not comment on Ms Morgan's individual case, but said it hears every day "from people that have been subjected to harmful hate speech on the basis of their race or religion, including First Peoples, and we see the failure of the current anti-vilification law to provide the protection these communities need".
The Yorta Yorta nation supports government policy to remove feral horses from Barmah National Park. (ABC Goulburn Murray: Mahalia Dobson)
Brumby group will not apologise
According to VCAT's order, the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group did not attend the hearing.
Group president Julie Pridmore has told the ABC she would not apologise to Ms Morgan.
"I will go to jail before I apologise because I have not done anything wrong," she said.
Ms Pridmore said the group had taken down its own posters in the national park, but other posters could not be taken down as they were on private properties.
When asked if she would encourage people to take down those posters, Ms Pridmore said she would not.
Ms Trescowthick said there were legal avenues that could be explored to enforce VCAT's orders.
She said VCAT's finding that the group contravened the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act "means they’ve broken the law" and a failure to comply with the orders "is also a breach of the law".
She said the EJA understood several posters were still at the national park's entrance.
Parks Victoria said the signs were on private property and not something the agency could take down.