A GP who called Australia’s first Indigenous ophthalmologist “a fake Aboriginal”, comparing him to “a watered-down bottle of Grange”, has been struck off after what AHPRA calls a landmark case. 

The decision of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal to strike off the GP for at least 12 months followed last year’s National Law changes that added the elimination of racism in healthcare as an underlying principle. 

“This means that culturally unsafe, racist practice cannot be ignored by regulatory decision-makers, including the independent tribunals who decide matters of professional misconduct,” AHPRA said in a statement on the case. 

The tribunal heard that the GP, whose name was suppressed, sent an email to ophthalmologist Dr Kristopher Rallah-Baker — whom he had never met — in July 2022.