It might be offensive but it's not illegal

There's nothing racist about the word "nigger", according to the Australian High Court. BILLY ADAMS reports.

It may be one of the most offensive terms you can use, but Australia's highest court has ruled there is nothing wrong with the word "nigger" being emblazoned on a grandstand.

Aboriginal activist Stephen Hagan has spent the past three years arguing unsuccessfully that the sign at his local sports ground is racist.

Now, with his domestic legal avenues exhausted, he is planning to take his fight to the United Nations.

The Queensland town of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, is the setting for the protracted row over the ES "Nigger" Brown stand at the local athletics oval.

It was named after Edward Stanley Brown, an Australian international rugby league player from the 1920s.

Teammates reportedly gave him the nickname because he had blond hair, blue eyes and was a dapper dresser who shined his shoes with "Nigger Brown" polish.

After hanging up his boots, Brown hatched a successful career as a local councillor and businessman.

And in 1959, when his achievements were recognised through the naming of the grandstand, it was by the name which everyone knew him: Nigger Brown.

Thirty years after his death the sign is causing more upset than it ever did when he was alive.

Hagan, a regional councillor with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), has mounted a series of failed legal bids to have "nigger" removed.

Ruling that the sign did not breach the Racial Discrimination Act, High Court Judge Mary Gaudron said the context of the word in this case was no more offensive than a "pink person" being offended by a cement truck with the label "Pink Mix".

"Now it's been formalised that you can have a public sign with the word 'nigger' on it," said a shocked Hagan. "Why are they [the judges] talking about a pink truck when they are talking about the word 'nigger'? I'm absolutely astounded that they don't see 'nigger' is offensive."

Hagan's lawyer, Peter Black, believes the continued existence of the sign will likely lead to further racial discrimination.

"It sends out the wrong message to young people who might go to the ground and ask what a nigger is," he said. "If a player called another player by that name he would probably be done for vilification and be sent off. But he would still see the name up on the stand as he was walking off."

That view is not shared by many in Toowoomba, including Aborigines, who say their local icon's nickname was never racist, merely ironic.

"This whole thing is political correctness gone mad," said one man who regularly sits in the grandstand. "Nigger Brown was the name he was known by. It's on his gravestone. If you take away that name you're taking away a bit of history. You can't do that simply because someone might draw the wrong inference from how the word was related to him."

Peter Black says the High Court interpreted the Racial Discrimination Act in a "literal and conservative manner" as the sign did not come about because of race or colour.

He believes the Australian legislation in these cases could be interpreted more widely, and in line with the UN Treaty which requires an action to be merely based on race or colour to be discriminatory.

That's an argument Hagan hopes to put before the UN's Committee on Racial Discrimination in Geneva.

The committee will study documents to be sent by Hagan's legal team before deciding whether to hear their case.

But Hagan has more practical financial hurdles to clear first. The court ordered him to pay the legal costs of the Toowoomba Sports Ground Trust which runs the venue. And funds have to be raised for an appeal to the UN.

Although his lawyer and barrister have so far worked on the case free, Hagan says he will need help to raise the money.

Trust chairman John McDonald described the case as a "great waste of time" and confirmed Hagan would be actively pursued for a bill which could amount to A$40,000 ($48,000).

McDonald said hundreds of thousands of people had passed through the oval over the years without complaining about the sign.

"He was known by everyone as Nigger Brown," said McDonald, a prominent Australian businessman and former rugby league international. "As a person who knew the man and who recognised his great contribution to the community, it would be foolish not to recognise him by the name he was known as.

"When it comes to people who are recognised, it is obvious that there are names which should stay.

"[Hagan's] entitled to his opinion, but I believe there are many more important issues in the world that need to be addressed."