Some of our discrimination matters this year are reminders of just how far we have to go to ensure that all of us can participate equally in society, even in some of the most basic activities. Here are only a few examples.
We acted for three women in regional Queensland, who were unable to become full members of their town's lawn bowls club. The club's constitution, in 2020, only permitted women to become associate members. They had no voting rights, and were limited as to which times and days they could play bowls.
Our clients brought complaints of sex discrimination to the Australian Human Rights Commission. At first, the Club and their local lawyer tried to justify the archaic provision, but with our help, the matter was resolved at conciliation and the Club's constitution amended. Our clients now have had their full-membership applications approved.
We helped a client to overcome a systemic disability discrimination issue, at mediation in the Federal Circuit Court. He is a three-time former Paralympian, now in his 70s. Our client has paraplegia and uses a wheelchair. Our client travelled to regional NSW to attend his 55th anniversary school reunion. On the morning of the reunion, after breakfast in a café, he urgently needed to use a toilet. He went to accessible public toilets at two nearby locations, only to find that they were both locked. He soiled himself.
It turns out that the local Council had a policy that all public accessible toilets were locked, and could only be accessed with the purchase of a key from Council chambers. The general public toilets at the same locations were not locked. The Council's explanation was that, if the accessible toilets were open, they might get vandalised or used for drug-taking. (So, only the accessible toilets were inaccessible…?).
Anyway, we settled the matter with a policy change, an apology and the payment of $7,000 in damages. All of the accessible public toilets are now unlocked during daylight hours, just like the Council's general public toilets.
Our client, who was born in Africa, was thrown out from a dance evening at a club, and roughed up on his way out. The reason given at the time was that he had not paid his entrance fee, although the organisers later acknowledged that our client had indeed paid. Tellingly, the opening words of the club's incident report read: "Male of African appearance refused to pay".
Our client gave evidence that: "I have encountered subtle forms of racism in my life, but what happened to me at the Club was by far the worst and most violent incident I have ever experienced. I felt helpless afterwards, as if my rights as a person had been taken way. I cannot escape the belief that I was seen as suspicious because I am black, and that was the reason I was accused of not paying to get in, and that was the reason that my honest statements that I had already paid were disregarded completely".
We settled his complaint of race discrimination through mediation, for an apology and the payment of $12,500.