The factsheet "Treated unfairly because you are an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person?" provides general information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about all grounds of discrimination covered by the Anti-Discrimination Act and how to make a complaint.
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Treated unfairly because you are an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person? (PDF - 654Kb)
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Treated unfairly because you are an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person?
Contents
What types of unfair treatment are against the law?
When is this unfair treatment against the law?
Vilification
What can I do if one of these things happens to me?
What will the Board do?
Examples of complaints we have handled at the Board
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Program
The Anti-Discrimination Board
What types of unfair treatment are against the law?
Sex discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because you are a woman or because you are a man. Discrimination against a woman because she is pregnant can also be sex discrimination. Sexual harassment is also against the law.
Race discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because of your race, colour, ethnic background, ethno-religious background, descent or nationality.
Age discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because of your age, for example, because people think you are too old, too young or middle aged. Forcing people to retire at the old retirement age is also against the law.
Marital or domestic status discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because of your particular marital status - for example, because you are single, or married, or living in a de facto relationship.
Homosexual or lesbian discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because you are gay, or someone thinks you are gay.
Disability discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because you have a disability, or someone thinks you have a disability. It is also against the law to treat you unfairly or harass you because you had a disability in the past, or because you will or may get one in the future. Disability includes physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities, learning and emotional problems, and any organism capable of causing disease, for example HIV.
Transgender (transsexuality) discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because you are transgender or others think you are transgender. You are counted as transgender if you live or want to live as a member of the opposite gender (sex) to your birth gender.
Carers’ responsibilities discrimination — when you are treated unfairly or harassed (in employment only) because you are responsible for caring or supporting some adults or some children, or others think you are.
Discrimination because of who you are related to, or who you associate with — when you are treated unfairly or harassed because of the sex, race, age, marital status, homosexuality/lesbianism, transgender (transsexuality) or disability of one of your relatives, friends or work colleagues.
Harassment — when you are subjected to behaviour that offends, humiliates or intimidates you, and the behaviour is based on your race, sex, pregnacy, breastfeeding, age, marital status, homosexuality, disability, transgender status or carer's responsibilities.
Sexual harassment — when you are subjected to sexually related behaviour that you do not want, and a reasonable person would expect you to be offended, humiliated or intimidated.
When is this unfair treatment against the law?
The types of discrimination and harassment listed above are against the law in the following situations:
- when you try to get goods or services — for example, from shops, banks, government departments, the local council, doctors, hospitals, ambulances, police, discos, pubs, public transport.
- a registered club refuses you membership or entry, or they treat you unfairly or harass you when you’re inside the club. Clubs that sell alcohol or have gambling machines are registered clubs.
- in rental accommodation — for example, a real estate agent, landlord or landlady refuses to rent you a house, flat, motel or hotel room, or commercial premises.
- in employment — for example when you apply for ajob, when you're at work, or when you leave a job.
- in a educational institution — for example you are treated unfairly when you apply to study at, or are studying in a government school, college, TAFE, university.
Vilification
It is also against the law to do anything publicly that could encourage hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is called racial vilification. The following examples could be against the law:
- graffiti that is racist or vilifies
- public speeches or abuse that are racist or vilifying
- statements in a newspaper or journal, in other publications, or on the radio or television that are racist or vilifying
- people wearing racist badges or clothing with racist slogans in public
- racist gestures made in public
- racist posters or notices displayed in public.
It is also against the law to publicy vilify people because they are homosexual, because they have HIV or AIDS, or because they are transgender.What can I do if one of these things happens to me?
If you would like more information about your rights, you can phone, write, or call in to any of our officers, or look on our website at www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au. There are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officers in our Sydney office so you can ask to speak to them. You can also refer to our other factsheets for more detailed information about the types of discrimination listed above.
Complaint form
What will the Board do?
We treat all complaints of discrimination confidentially. If what has happened to you is against the law, we will try to help you and the person or organisation you're complaining about to come to an agreement about how the problem can be resolved — called a "settlement". We are impartial in this process and do not take sides.
The settlement will depend on the circumstances of your complaint. It could be an apology, financial compensation, your job back and so on. Most complaints are settled this way.
If yor complaint isn't settled in this way, you may go to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. This is a court that makes a legal judgement which must be followed. However, very few need to go to court.Examples of complaints we have handled at the Board
Employment — A woman who attended an educational college lodged an internal grievance of sexual harassment against a male student. The internal grievance wasn’t dealt with in a proper manner. The woman was then victimised at the end of the proceedings. She then lodged a complaint with us. As a result, it was agreed that the whole college should be trained about sexual harassment issues and grievance handling procedures.
Accommodation — We contacted a real estate agency after a man complained that his application for rental accommodation had not been treated fairly because he was Aboriginal. After we approached the agency, they reviewed their policy on references, and offered the man the premises he wanted.
Hotel service — A hotel refused to serve an Aboriginal woman. She complained to the Board. The hotel licensee said that the woman was barred for life because she was part of a group that had been involved in a disturbance at the hotel. She complained to the Board that only the Aboriginal people involved in the disturbance were barred for life. As a result of her complaint, all bans were removed.
Nightclub entry and dress regulations — A nightclub in a country town refused entry to all Aboriginal people who tried to enter saying that they did not meet the dress regulations. Yet non-Aboriginal people in similar dress were allowed in. Eleven Aborigines complained to us about this. We helped ten of them get financial compensation. Unfortunately, we lost contact with the eleventh person.
Racial vilification — An article that racially vilified Aborigines was published in a country newspaper. After our intervention, the author and newspaper apologised to the complainant, and the newspaper continued to work with the community in a more positive way.Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Outreach Program
It is our job to investigate and conciliate complaints of discrimination from Indigenous people all over NSW, and tell Indigenous organisations and individuals about the Board, the anti-discrimination laws and how and when to use us. We also investigate and conciliate complaints of discrimination while visiting regional areas.
The Anti-Discrimination Board
The Anti-Discrimination Board was set up in 1977 to administer the Anti-Discrimination Act. The Board does three main things:
- It investigates and tries to settle complaints of discrimination, harrassment and vilification
- It tries to prevent discrimination from happening — by educating people about what the anti-discrimination laws say and why they are important
- I reports to the government if we think the law needs changing to help prevent discrimination.
Conciliation cases handled by the Board
Legal cases from Equal Time
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