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A Maori man who sued one of Sydney's most popular pubs and its bouncers after he was denied entry because of his racial background has been awarded a $5000 payout.
Scruffy Murphy's was yesterday ordered to pay New Zealander Marcellus Cook $2500 in damages for banning him under its race exclusion policy, which applied to people of Middle Eastern and Pacific Islander appearance who were not known to the pub.
The hotel's publican, Malcolm McGuinness, introduced the policy in November 2005.
Its contracted security company, T&B Corporate Security Services, was also found to have breached the Anti-Discrimination Act and must pay Mr Cook $2500, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The ruling against Mr McGuinness and the security company's director Tibi Brandusiou was handed down in the Administrative Decisions Tribunal's equal opportunities division yesterday.
Samoan Benji Tupou and Mr Cook both told the tribunal they were refused entry by security staff who were transparent about the reasons.
"Seriously boys, I don't know how to say this, but you guys can't come in to the hotel."
"No Islanders or Lebanese," the security guard allegedly added.
Mr Cook told the newspaper he was pleased with the tribunal's decision after the humiliation of being banned from the pub.
"The decision confirms that the hotel's policy to exclude patrons simply on the ground of their race is against the law," he said.
"It is important that the tribunal has found that both the hotel and its security guards were responsible for what happened to me."
In also finding Scruffy Murphy's race exclusion policy to be a breach of the Anti-Discrimination Act, the tribunal recognised that Mr McGuinness conceded the policy was in place when Mr Cook tried to get in to the pub.
He scrapped the rule in January 2006.
- NZPA
