KEY POINTS:
The owner of a backpacker hostel tried to diffuse a race row yesterday as another looked set to erupt over a Queensland council election campaign.
Kevin Wise, a mayoral candidate in Saturday's Queensland local government elections, wants to replace 25 indigenous families from a southwest Queensland town with the same number of Vietnamese families.
While Wise, 66, admitted he didn't believe his views would win him the Paroo Shire mayoralty, the hostel at the centre of a new race row pleaded its innocence.
The Alice Springs hostel denied allegations that it forced a group of young Aboriginal community leaders to leave after complaints from other guests.
The Aboriginal women from the remote community of Yuendumu, 300km northwest of the central Australian city, said the hostel had told them the international guests objected to the colour of their skin.
The women, with community elders and a number of children, were in Alice Springs to train as lifesavers under a special programme organised by the Royal Life Saving Society, which paid for the accommodation.
Members of the group also claimed the hostel manager had tried to "bribe" them with cash from the till as they left for other accommodation.
But hostel joint owner Greg Zammit said in a statement yesterday that an investigation of the incident had shown that the group was encouraged to stay as the manager tried to resolve differences with other guests.
He said the manager had been unable to allay concerns about the Yuendumu group expressed by international backpackers and offered to move the backpackers - not the lifesaving group - to other accommodation.
The manager was also told that other backpackers were also complaining.
"The manager advised both parties of their respective views, said that she was prepared to move the complainants and assured the lifesaving group that they were welcome to stay," Zammit said.
"An organiser with the lifesaving group told the manager that they felt uncomfortable and they wanted to leave."
Zammit said that when the group decided to leave the manager had offered to seek alternative accommodation and had done so, in consultation with them.
He said that an organiser with the lifesaving group had asked for A$480 ($556) to pay for a night's accommodation.
The manager had provided the money, but another organiser gave it back.
Zammit said that his firm did not tolerate racial discrimination in any form and promoted indigenous cultural experiences to guests. "As owners, we are disappointed and sorry for the upset and embarrassment this situation has caused the young Aborigines and their companions," he said.
Meanwhile, in a brochure written and distributed in Cunnamulla by Wise, he pledges to ask the federal government to pay A$50,000 ($58,322) to each of the 25 local indigenous families he wants to move out of the shire.
Wise says he would invite 25 poor non-English-speaking Vietnamese families to take their place on a five-year contract.
Wise said he had served in the Australian Army during the Vietnam War and believed hard-working Vietnamese families would help rejuvenate the town's economy.
The brochure has raised the ire of Aboriginal activist and former Cunnamulla resident Stephen Hagan who said the pamphlet had no place in today's society.
He said he would lodge a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland. "I don't think it has any merit," said Hagan.
"He's implying that the Vietnamese would be far more economic (sic) than Aboriginal people in terms of contributing to the economy.
"That is racist and there's no other way of looking at it."
- additional reporting AAP
