Home » News » Gulf War treatment in Coolaroo led to fury, book launch

Gulf War treatment in Coolaroo led to fury, book launch

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer will launch a book in Melbourne on Tuesday that is set in Coolaroo during the 1990 Gulf War.

Sorry We Have No Space was written by social worker-psychologist-turned-newspaper columnist Joseph Wakim.

It details his experiences as “an average Joe”, who turned activist because of his fury over the treatment he saw meted out to clients in Coolaroo whose house was smeared with racist graffiti that now features on his book’s front cover.

Wakim was awarded the Commonwealth Violence Prevention Award in 1996 and the Order of Australia Medal for public campaigns to redress the causes of racism in 2001.

Most of his opinion pieces can be viewed on josephwakim.com.au and he can be followed on Twitter @WakimJ

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