Hearing for Kruger race complaint

TELEVISION personality Sonia Kruger has failed to have a racial vilification complaint against her dismissed, nearly two years after a Muslim viewer claimed she had vilified his religion by saying Australian borders should be closed to Islamic immigration.

The matter will now proceed for directions next month after the Civil and Administrative Tribunal yesterday refused the Nine Network’s application to have the complaint dismissed without a hearing. The complaint was made by serial offence-taker Sam Ekermawi, a Muslim living in southwest Sydney, who said the Nine Network had vilified “ethnic Muslim Australians”.

The tribunal heard evidence Mr Ekermawi has been involved in 32 hearings before courts and tribunals — 22 of them related to vilification complaints. In July 2016, Kruger said she agreed with the proposition Australian borders should be closed to Muslims while discussing a newspaper article written by columnist Andrew Bolt on a “Mixed Grill” segment of the Today show.

Mr Ekermawi claimed “she’s implying that (Muslims) are terrorists to dehumanise them”.

Nine failed to convince the tribunal the comments were about religion and not race.