Queensland author Chelsea Watego launches racial discrimination case over 2018 arrest

State of Queensland tells tribunal the arrest was lawful, reasonable and proportionate and there is no evidence to support a claim of unlawful discrimination

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The prominent academic and author, Prof Chelsea Watego, has brought a racial discrimination case against the state of Queensland and two police officers who arrested and handcuffed her outside a Brisbane nightclub in 2018.

Watego, a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman, was arrested outside the Beat nightclub in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley in December 2018, for allegedly failing to leave the premises at closing time. Charges for that offence were not pursued in court.

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