The comments by Sol Trujillo were nothing more than sour grapes for the negative response to his poor performance at the helm of Telstra and then pocketing millions of dollars in bonuses over the term of his contract.

As much as some would disingenuously make this a political issue, Trujillo raised the rankles even of former Treasurer Costello when he pocketed a $1.5 million dollar bonus due to the implementation of recommendations from a US owned consultancy who were paid more than ~ $52million in consultant fees.

An Aussie PM saying adios does not a racist make and is way off the mark when using this as some sort of evidence of rampant Australia-wide racism in the case of Mr Ward's death in custody.

I am really concerned when the term racist or racism gets bandied about without duty of care to the truth, which only goes to diminish the real and blatanty cruel acts of racism.

It is laughable that a man of Trujillo's background and experience in the US could make such a claim about Australia. Ask anyone who has spent time in the US and seen the blatant way that African Americans, Muslims and other minorities including Mexicans are treated will know just how way off the mark this statement was and the malicious intent in which it was delivered.

It is too easy for someone of Mr Trujillo's reputation to throw out an accusation of racism in response to something quite different altogether. It is the act of a coward.

I should add that in relation to Mr Ward there are many questions that need to be asked and for a human being to be treated in that way is deplorable. But this is quite a separate issue from the Trujillo comments.

An issue deserving of much more attention than the throw-away comments of Mr Trujillo.

With regard to Mr Ward I am amazed at the lack of response from White and Aboriginal Community's for not demanding a Royal Commission or Bonding together and taking the Law into their own hands . I would imagine there would be some way via the United Nations this could be done especially where Duty of Care Laws don't work as we know they don't in the Northern Territory . What does the Geneva Convention say about incarceration of Indigenous People in Captured Territory ?
Where is Noel Pearson on this issue .

As for our Ubiquitous Quark Sol , I insist 'HE' is a raciest done and dusted !

What happened to Mr Ward was abysmal, deplorable, horrifying - and cannot be justified. However, the words of the JP are also disturbing... this respected Elder appeared in court. The court was not informed of the esteem in which he is held in his community. He appeared in Court in a drunken or groggy state. Where was the ALS or Legal Aid? Why was Mr Ward appearing in court in such a state?
No government is ever keen to spend additional money on prisoners. Race hardly comes into it.
The actions of the guards are also incomprehensible - why wouldn't they check on their prisoner, offer drink/food/toilet breaks? I don't know the answer to that but it seems you are suggesting it is because of racism... Do you think that there's a chance that the reason the guards didn't want to go back into the van was because of the way they thought the prisoner might behave based on past experience?
Stephen your last post was something I could support and agree with but unfortunately this one goes back to a familiar theme... when one is looking for offence (in this case racism) one will always see it everywhere you look.

"I am really concerned when the term racist or racism gets bandied about without duty of care to the truth, which only goes to diminish the real and blatantly cruel acts of racism."

After about 30 years of gagging social discourse by firing RACIST from the hip at every critic perhaps society has gone back to the future and will once again revive the words bigot and biased.

If it is justifiable for a man of colour earning a couple of million a year in the corporate world; to label the society that championed him as racist, we must then conclude that there is no hope.

no Australian black people anywhere, not on buses or in taxis, not in school yards

What an obtuse comment.

There are in fact, school yards in Sydney where white faces comprise less than 5% of the population. Most Sydney schools reflect the cosmopolitan nature of the cities population.

Where does this OLO writer live? Certainly not in Blacktown.