Remember me
A veteran nurse and self-described boomer has resigned during an internal investigation into inappropriate comments while teaching a young Indigenous student, including terms like 'n***er', 'half-caste' and 'quarter-blood'.
Gregory Rayner, 70, left his role as nurse educator at Mater Health in Brisbane in February 2022 following problematic statements he made three months prior while supervising four student nurses, one of whom he knew identified as Indigenous.
The students were completing a workbook module called Improvement of Communication with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients, but the session ended with the Indigenous student, known only as AB, leaving the room in distress.
In a judgement published by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in May 2025, Mr Rayner was accused by two students of asking why he couldn't use the word 'n***er', and claiming 'black people have more rights than white people'.
He denied making those remarks, but admitted asking AB about the process of identifying as Aboriginal because he 'wanted to explore his own potential Aboriginal parentage'.
According to the judgement, the Nursing and Midwifery Board - which filed the civil case against him - compared Mr Rayner's comments to a separate case in 2023 when a doctor described his Indigenous colleague as 'a watered-down bottle of Grange, not the real thing'.
Mr Rayner this week told the Daily Mail he is still trying to 'get over' the situation and doesn't want to talk about it. He did not explain why he now claims his middle name is Wiradjuri on social media - the name of the Aboriginal people from central NSW.
He also didn't elaborate on why there is a link to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies on his LinkedIn profile, or why he refers to himself as the 'Antipodean from Arabia' on Facebook.
Gregory Rayner (pictured) had been a registered nurse since about 1980
According to the published judgement, Mr Rayner made inappropriate comments that weren't relevant to the topic of discussion, which was supposed to be focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.
Mr Rayner, who refers to himself as 'BOOMER1' on Facebook, admitted telling the student nurses 'today's people are too sensitive' and talking about African American rappers during the class.
But he denied asking AB 'how do I know I'm not Indigenous?', and suggesting the Indigenous Australia map was incorrect because 'there were no town planners' prior to the arrival of Europeans in Australia in the 1600s.
Judicial Member John Robertson, who presided over the case, accepted the evidence of the two students who recalled him making these statements.
One student, known only as CD in court documents, recalled Mr Rayner started telling the group about personal experiences with people who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
'During these conversations, Greg mentioned that 'nowadays, black people have more rights than white people',' CD said in a statement to the tribunal.
'This then led to a conversation to how black people can say 'n***er', however if he was to say this word he would then get in 'big trouble'.'
A third student in the group, known as EF, provided unchallenged evidence to the tribunal about whether offensive language was used.
Mr Rayner was a nurse educator at Mater Health in Brisbane when he made the comments to a young Indigenous nursing student
She said: 'At one stage before the conversation about Indigenous people had started, we were talking about music that is inappropriate. Greg said he didn't like rap music but that rappers used derogatory terminology like "n***er".
'He asked me, "Why is it that they can sing it but we cannot?"
'I replied to Greg that it is never okay to use that language and the conversation moved to a different topic.'
Both students recalled his using the words 'half-caste' and 'quarter blood' in discussions involving AB, which Mr Rayner also denies.
Mr Rayner further denied questioning AB's heritage on the basis of her appearance, while CD specifically said he recalled the question.
Instead, he told the tribunal that he asked AB 'the process of how to identify as Aboriginal as he felt he wanted to explore possible Aboriginal parentage'.
Mr Rayner was asked by CD and EF to stop the conversation, but he told the tribunal that he didn't stop because he didn't hear a complaint from AB herself.
He later acknowledged that AB left the room in distress because she was so upset by his comments.
In the judgement, Judicial Member Robertson said: 'What is concerning about this is that it was the students, in particular Ms EF and Mr CD, who picked up on Miss AB's distress.
'In other words, this was a senior supervisor being told that his conduct was inappropriate by young students in his care, which it clearly was, but which he only appreciated after being told so by the other students.'
Mr Rayner texted an apology to AB immediately after the incident, but it wasn't enough to deter her from making a formal complaint to the hospital and to the Human Rights Commission.
Mr Rayner (pictured) denied saying culturally insensitive terms, but did not explain to the tribunal what words he did use
In an email to investigators from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), Mr Rayner suggested his comments were not the real reason AB was upset.
He wrote: 'I am respectfully requesting for your Department to consider including a request for an enquiry/statement from Mater Education regarding [Miss AB's] personal conduct within her Faculty.
'It may point to other "root causes" to her overall demeanour and catalyst behind her initial complaint about me.'
The Human Rights Commission complaint appears to have been resolved with an apology, the judgement read, but AHPRA was unable to obtain the documentation.
Judicial Member Robertson said in the judgement that Mr Rayner had denied using various terms throughout the class, but did not provide examples of the words he did use.
While the Nursing and Midwifery Board claimed Mr Rayner's comments were more serious than a separate matter in 2023 when a Canberra-based doctor made deliberately racist comments to a colleague he did not know.
In that case, the doctor told the colleague, 'I have attached photos of what real Aboriginals look like just to remind you,' and that he was like a 'watered-down bottle of Grange'.
Speaking with AHPRA investigators, the doctor said his colleague was a 'd***head' and a 'fake Aboriginal', and a 'half blood' who was 'after the kudos they self-generate' and 'play on the heart strings of the Stolen Generation and other lies'.
Judicial Member Robertson said the doctor's comments were far more offensive and deliberately racist than Mr Rayner's comments, which he described as being 'reckless' and 'insensitive'.
'This senior nurse in a role supervising and teaching young nursing students, one of whom he knew identified as an Aboriginal person, in a module directly dealing with culturally appropriate communications with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander patients, said things which were culturally inappropriate, objectively offensive and unsafe which caused actual distress to Miss AB,' he said.
'Whatever the state of mind of the respondent at the time, what is clear is that not only did his conduct breach various provisions of the Code of Conduct, the comments in context were also objectively offensive.'
Mr Rayner resigned three months after the incident, in February 2022, and was not subject to suspension.
The tribunal heard Mr Rayner was upset over the situation and provided statements of support from Aboriginal childhood friends.
Judicial Member Robertson noted that Mr Rayner had been a practising nurse since 1980 with no disciplinary questions until the incident in December 2021.
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