Frequently Asked Questions
Discrimination, vilification, victimisation, what's the difference?
Discrimination means treating someone unfairly or unfavourably because of a personal characteristic such as their sex or race. Vilification is behaviour that incites or encourages hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group of people, because of their race or religion. Victimisation is hassling someone because they have made an allegation or formal complaint of discrimination or sexual harassment.
- Find out what other characteristics are protected by law
- Find out more about the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act
Sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that could make a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. Sexual harassment can be physical, verbal, visual or written.
What do you mean by 'authorising' or 'assisting' discrimination?
It is against the law to ask, tell, induce, encourage, authorise or assist a person to discriminate or harass another. In some cases, knowing discrimination is happening and doing nothing could amount to authorising it. For example, if everyone at work knows someone is sexually harassing a co-worker, including the manager, and she does nothing about it, the manager has effectively sent a message to all her staff that sexual harassment in the workplace will be tolerated.
When is discrimination lawful? are there any exceptions to the law?
In some cases, exceptions to the law will apply.
