After letters of regret were sent by Professor Meville-Jones and the University of Western Australia to the Macedonian Council of Western Australia (MCWA)*, the MCWA has dropped a racial discrimination complaint it made to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The complaint against the professor, his employer – the university, and the Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC), followed a speech Professor Meville-Jones made at an AMAC event in 2010, when he spoke about FYROM’s decision to erect a statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje and made a comment that members of MCWA were “not well educated”.
The speech was published on the AMAC website shortly after. The MCWA alleged that the published comment contravened the Racial Discrimination Act on the basis that it was likely to offend, insult or humiliate the community they represent.
The complaint asked for apologies from the professor and university, and the removal of the article from AMAC’s website.
In a letter sent to MCWA last month, Professor Meville-Jones expressed his “regret” at causing “distress to members of the MCWA community”.
In his letter he asked AMAC to remove the paragraph from the website, adding that he had not “adequately considered how these words might be interpreted.” The paragraph was subsequently removed.
Professor Paul Johnson, vice chancellor of the University of WA, also wrote to MCWA saying that the university regretted the speech had “caused offence.”
Following receipt of the letters, solicitors for MCWA advised the Australian Human Rights Commission that it had resolved its complaint against the university and professor.
The MCWA also told the commission that whilst the complaint against AMAC was unresolved, they did not wish to pursue the matter further at the Federal Court.
In a statement to the media a spokesman from AMAC described the complaint as “frivolous” and “a vexatious waste of tax payer money”.
*This is the formal name under which this entity is registered in Australia. Neos Kosmos does not endorse the use of the term ‘Macedonian’ in this context.