Bowls Victoria, Albert Park Bowls Club Inc. – Oct 2016

The application made by Bowls Victoria related to conducting single gender lawn bowls events held at club, division, region and state level, including for competitors under 18, 25 and 60 years of age, and bowlers with a disability.

Bowls Victoria was seeking an exemption to allow it to conduct single gender lawn bowls events.

Section 71 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 provides that a person must not discriminate against another person by excluding the other person from participation in a sporting activity. Section 72 provides an exception for competitive sporting activities in certain circumstances, including where:

• participation is necessary for progression to an elite level competition, and the exclusion is necessary to enable participants to progress to national or international elite competition (section 72(1A));
• the exclusion or restriction is intended to facilitate participation by people of a particular sex, and it is reasonable to do so having regard to certain specified factors (section 72(1B)); or
• the restriction is to people of a specified age or age group, or people with a general or particular disability (section 72(2)(b) and (c)).

The Commission filed written submissions on the competitive sporting activities exception and the Tribunal’s power to grant exemptions (see below).

The applicants withdrew their applications and, therefore, the matter did not proceed.