Strengthening protections for Victorians under the Equal Opportunity Act
Our vision: For the Equal Opportunity Act (EOA) to protect a wider range of groups vulnerable to discrimination, to minimise the harmful impact of social exclusion and mistreatment.
The problem
The EOA does not adequately protect volunteers
Volunteers and unpaid workers make a significant contribution to the Victorian community. While they are protected from sexual harassment, volunteers and unpaid workers are not currently protected from discrimination under the Equal Opportunity Act. This sends a harmful message that volunteers and unpaid workers are not as valuable as paid employees.
The EOA does not protect victims/survivors of family violence
Discrimination against victims and survivors of family violence occurs in all areas of public life, which may limit a person’s ability to leave a violent relationship or could result in homelessness if they do. Women in particular are more likely to experience family violence and are at greater risk of unfavourable treatment in employment due to the impacts of family violence.
The EOA does not protect people with irrelevant criminal records from discrimination
The Equal Opportunity Act has recently been amended to provide protection against discrimination for people with spent convictions. However, this amendment does not extend to protect all people with irrelevant criminal records, which would provide broader protection.
Discrimination on the basis of a person’s irrelevant criminal record can have wide-ranging impacts, including reducing employment opportunities and access to housing and other services. Discrimination also holds back people from reintegrating and fully contributing to society, and can compound existing discrimination, such as the discrimination experienced by First Nations Peoples.
This entrenches disadvantage and reinforces marginalisation.
Enforcement powers
While the Commission currently has some powers to enforce discrimination laws through our investigation and reporting functions, we have limited ability to engage with non-compliant organisations and rely heavily on individuals to complain before stepping in.
This reduces the incentives to comply with the positive duty to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, and limits the effectiveness of Victoria’s discrimination laws, meaning these behaviours are more prevalent than they could be.
The solution
The protections under the Equal Opportunity Act should be expanded to adequately cover volunteers and the new attributes of ‘status of victim/survivor of family violence’ and ‘irrelevant criminal record’.
The Commission should be given stronger enforcement powers to enable us to undertake own-motion public inquiries, require people to attend or provide documents or information for the purposes of an inquiry and require organisations to take corrective action that is enforceable at VCAT.
The Commission should be given stronger investigation enforcement powers to enable us to enforce compliance with the law and ensure organisations are taking necessary steps to prevent discrimination.
Work we are doing
In our submission to the Legislative Committee’s Inquiry into a Legislative Spent Convictions Scheme, we advocated for the addition of ‘irrelevant criminal record’ as a new attribute in the Equal Opportunity Act, alongside the establishment of a spent convictions scheme. The attribute of ‘spent convictions’ was ultimately introduced, however, we continue to support the introduction of the broader attribute of irrelevant criminal record.
After the spent convictions reforms came into place, we developed the Spent Conviction Discrimination Guideline in order to help duty holders comply with their obligations.