Our complaints process: what you need to know

We help people resolve complaints of discrimination, sexual harassment, vilification (hate speech and hateful behaviour) and victimisation. 

We use an informal process called conciliation to support both parties to: 

• tell their stories 

• listen to one another 

• understand the impact 

• work together to find an outcome. 

We can help resolve complaints under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010.  

Under these laws, you can make a complaint if you believe you have experienced discrimination, sexual harassment, vilification or victimisation. 

If you are making a complaint about discrimination under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010, it must: 

• have happened in an area of public life that is protected by the law – such as in recruitment or at work, in education, in the delivery of goods and services, or in accommodation, sport or clubs 

• be about something that happened because of at least one personal characteristic that is protected by the law – such as your race, disability, sex, age, sexuality or gender identity. 

The incident or behaviour must have happened in Victoria unless your complaint is about vilification, which only requires one of the participants to be a resident of Victoria. 

You can:

• fill in our online complaint form 
• send an email to enquiries@veohrc.vic.gov.au
• call us on 1300 292 153 for more information or assistance.

There is no cost to make a complaint.

You can make a complaint in any language. We can also arrange a free interpreter to help you, including Auslan interpreters.

Contact us to let us know how we can help you participate in the process.

You can also ask someone else to make a complaint for you, such as a family member, friend, advocate, union or lawyer. We will ask you to provide your consent for that person to act on your behalf.

If you are thinking about making a complaint, there are some important things you should know.

To help us understand your complaint, you should give us as much detail as possible, including:

• your name and contact details (in most cases you can’t make an anonymous complaint)
• the name and contact details of the person or organisation your complaint is about
• what happened in your own words, where it happened and when
• if you believe you experienced discrimination, the area of public life it happened in and the reason for the discrimination (at least one personal characteristic protected by the law)
• the type of outcome you would like – such as an apology or financial compensation
• if you need any adjustments to help you participate in the process, such as an interpreter.

You should also provide us with copies of any relevant documents.

We will assess your complaint to see if we can help you – which we can only do if your complaint is covered by the Equal Opportunity Act 2010.  

We may contact you if we need more information before deciding whether to accept your complaint. 

If we don’t accept your complaint and can’t help you, we will tell you why and give you information about other organisations that may be able to help. 

We are committed to provide and maintain a service that is impartial, accessible, accountable, rigorous, creative, and empathetic. 

We take a flexible approach to meet the different needs of different members of the Victorian community. Our conciliators use strategies to address any disadvantage experienced by anyone in the process and make sure that the process used is tailored to the needs of the participants to keep them safe.