An indigenous activist is suing retail giant Coles after he was asked to prepay fuel at a gas station in Townsville.
Dr. Stephen Hagan, academic and former diplomat, has filed a lawsuit against Coles Express under the Racial Discrimination Act, The Australian reports.
Dr. Hagan said he had gone to a gas station in Garbutt to fill up his rental car on the way to the airport. He was in Townsville to attend Elton John’s concert with his wife.
He said he “could not hire the bowser” and was then called via the public address system to go inside the gas station, where he was informed that he had to pay in advance for its fuel.
“I asked the attendant why I had to pay in advance while other white drivers – one had just paid and another was on the line behind me – were not asked to do the same,” said Dr. Hagan.
“My concerns were confirmed when the attendant said he was having problems” with the others who were driving away without paying. “
According to The Australian, legal representatives of Coles said an internal investigation had been carried out into the “unpleasant experience”, but denied that Dr. Hagan had been “racially profiled”.
Coles said through his lawyers that it was still dark when Dr. Hagan entered the gas station and “because of the distance from the CCTV camera”, the license was not visible and the attendant could “not see the driver clearly”.
Dr. Hagan is a longtime Aboriginal rights activist. Earlier this week, he took part in the Black Lives Matters protests, highlighting the brutal death of Dunghutti man David Dungay Jr, in detention in 2015, who in part inspired today’s protests in Australia .
In 2016, he hit the headlines for calling Toowoomba “Australia’s most racist city” after a local chemist installed nine golliwogs with the words “Live a White Christmas” above it.
The author and filmmaker has also campaigned against E.S. “N **** r” Brown Stand in 1999.
