Queensland


Legislation, Policy and Planning
	Legislation
		Commonwealth
		Queensland
	Policies and planning
	Committees

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The Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland (ADCQ) is responsible for the protection of Queenslanders under the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act 1991. This act is aimed at promoting fair treatment and equality for everyone by protecting them from unfair discrimination, vilification on the grounds of race, religion, gender identity or sexuality, and from sexual harassment and certain associated objectionable conduct.

The Act prohibits sexual harassment, which is any form of unwelcome sexual attention that is offensive, intimidating or humiliating. It also prohibits discrimination on the basis of:

sex	relationship status
pregnancy	breastfeeding
age	race
impairment	religious belief or activity
political belief or activity	trade union activity
lawful sexual activity	parental status
family responsibilities	sexuality
gender identity	or association with, or relation to, a person who has any of the above attributes.

Vilification is behaviour that:

happens in a public place AND
incites others to hate, to have serious contempt of, or to severely ridicule individuals or groups because of their race, religion, gender identity or sexuality

Serious vilification is a criminal offence under the Act and cand be describe as above but also includes threat of, or incitement to threaten, physical harm towards people or property.

For more information about Racial Vilification contact the Equity Section for a brochure.

The Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland

The ADCQ is responsible for investigating complaints of unlawful discrimination, vilification, sexual harassment. Most complaints are resolved through conciliation.

The ADCQ also plays an important role in awareness-raising, advocacy, policy development, education and training about human rights, discrimination, harassment and vilification.

For more information about the ADCQ, go to www.adcq.qld.gov.au

Workplace Health & Safety Legislation

Recently the State government (Department of Industrial Relations) published a new Safety Standard, “Prevention of Workplace Harassment Advisory Standard 2004”. This standard outlines employers' obligations which include identifying and managing exposure to the risk of death, injury or illness created by workplace harassment (section 3.1.1)

This new Advisory Standard came into effect for 5 years from 1 June 2004. As a result of its introduction, Queensland will need to undertake a risk management process and put in place relevant measures to prevent or control the exposure of relevant persons, including employees, to the risk of workplace harassment.

QUT already meets these requirements through the Code of Conduct (for staff) and the Student Charter, the Health & Safety Policy (MOPP A/9.1), as well as the Grievance Resolution Policy and the relevant grievance resolution procedures.