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A significant number of sexual harassment complaints received by the Commission involve small businesses. Employers should be aware of the potential for sexual harassment to occur in the context of close working relationships where staff are on familiar terms with one another and should take appropriate precautions to avoid this risk.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission ("HREOC") is an independent statutory authority established under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth). It has a variety of functions and powers to promote and protect the human rights of all people in Australia. HREOC administers the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) ("SDA"). Sexual harassment is a…

This chapter provides an overview of some of the main findings of the national telephone survey on the incidence and nature of sexual harassment. Section 2.2 discusses the incidence rate of the experience of sexual harassment in the community generally, and more particularly the incidence rate of sexual harassment in the workplace experienced in the five years prior to conducting the survey…

This Chapter compares the results of HREOC's review of sexual harassment in employment complaints reported in A Bad Business with the findings of the telephone survey on the incidence and nature of sexual harassment in the workplace in relation to:

Almost one in three targets of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces in the last five years formally reported it either to employers or to external agencies, the majority reporting it to their manager, supervisor or employer. Very few targets reported the sexual harassment to external agencies.

Sexual harassment is unlawful under the SDA and complaints of sexual harassment are managed by HREOC under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth) ("HREOCA"). This Chapter provides a short overview of the public policy framework which governs sexual harassment and examines some of the implications of the survey results for public policy, particularly in…

A telephone survey questionnaire of eight to ten minutes duration was designed by HREOC in collaboration with the Gallup Organization. A copy is attached at Appendix B.

Acknowledgements The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission would like to thank the following people. COMMISSIONER AND EDITOR Pru Goward DIRECTOR, SEX DISCRIMINATION UNIT Sally Moyle AUTHORS Pru Goward Gayle Balding CONTRIBUTORS Sex Discrimination Unit Melissa Stutsel Karen O’Connell Marissa Sandler (to November 2003) Complaints Rocky Clifford Paula Gonzalez Legal Katie Ellinson…

Back to Table of Contents 20 Years on: The Challenges Continue. Download 20 Years On: The Challenges Continue is available for download in PDF format. Click here to download the complete report Click on the links below to access individual chapters: Foreword Executive Summary Key Findings Chapter 1: HREOC's research on sexual harassment Chapter 2: Incidence and experience of sexual…

Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated where that reaction is reasonable in the circumstances. Sexual harassment in employment is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).

Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated where that reaction is reasonable in the circumstances.

HREOC's release of its interim paper, Valuing Parenthood: Options for paid maternity leave sparked an extraordinary community debate about the difficulties of combining work and family responsibilities in modern Australia.

Recommendation 2: That a national scheme of paid leave at the time of birth of a child be provided for women. The exceptions to this, where payment can be made to a woman's partner, should include where the mother has died, where the mother is not medically able to care for the child (based on a doctor's opinion), or where the child has been adopted.

In August 2001, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) began a comprehensive examination of the need or otherwise for a national paid maternity leave scheme in Australia.

The following instruments, declarations, principles and guidelines set out Australia's International human rights obligations with regard to cultural heritage protection.

This report is a tribute to the strength and struggles of many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by forcible removal. We acknowledge the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made. We remember and lament all the children who will never come home.

Our life pattern was created by the government policies and are forever with me, as though an invisible anchor around my neck. The moments that should be shared and rejoiced by a family unit, for [my brother] and mum and I are forever lost. The stolen years that are worth more than any treasure are irrecoverable. Confidential submission 338, Victoria.

You can read the report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, from April 1997.

Every morning our people would crush charcoal and mix that with animal fat and smother that all over us, so that when the police came they could only see black children in the distance. We were told always to be on the alert and, if white people came, to run into the bush or run and stand behind the trees as stiff as a poker, or else hide behind logs or run into culverts and hide. Often the white…

Within months of the `First Fleet' arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788 there was `open animosity' as Indigenous people protested against `the Europeans cutting down trees, taking their food and game, and driving them back into others' territories'. Bitter conflict followed as Aboriginal people engaged in `guerilla warfare - plundering crops, burning huts, and driving away stock' to be met by `punitive…