Information for complainants, for complaints lodged under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act
HREOC provides a free and impartial service to handle complaints of discrimination, harassment and unfair treatment.
The following information explains how we go about assessing and resolving complaints.
1. Do we have the power to investigate your complaint?
HREOC cannot investigate all complaints. The complaints must be about an issue that is covered by federal anti-discrimination or human rights laws.
We will look carefully at your complaint to make sure that you have complained about something that is covered by these federal laws. We may contact you for more information before we make that decision.
Stage 1
We have the power to investigate your complaint and an Investigation/conciliator will contact you.
Or:
You have complained about something that is not covered by those laws and we will write to you to explain why we cannot help you.
2. Investigating your complaint
The Investigation/Conciliation Officer will contact you to discuss your complaint, on behalf of the President of the Commission. We may need more information about what has happened to you. We will also discuss with you what you expect from the complaint handling process.
We will then contact the person that you are complaining about (the respondent) and:
- tell them that you have made a complaint
- provide them a copy of your complaint (without your personal contact details); and
- ask them to respond.
We may ask you or the respondent to provide relevant documents and, if required, we may interview witnesses. The laws give us powers to help us do this.
Stage 2
There is not enough evidence to support your complaint and the President decides to stop the investigation and close the complaint. We will write to you and give you our reasons.
Or:
The President thinks there is enough evidence to support your complaint and we will try to resolve your complaint by conciliation.
3. Conciliation
We will try to help you reach an agreement with the respondent that will resolve your complaint in a fair way. We may do this by bringing you and the respondent together in a "conciliation conference".
The Investigation/ Conciliation Officer is impartial and will set the standards for the conference. At the conference, you and the respondent will have the chance to talk about your problems and look for solutions. It is not necessary for you to be represented by a lawyer. If you do have a lawyer, you must pay for the lawyer yourself.
Conciliation processes are flexible and sometimes matters can be settled by an exchange of letters, telephone negotiation through the Conciliation Officer or by a telephone conciliation conference.
We will discuss with you what approach you think would work best.
Stage 3
You and the respondent reach an agreement about your complaint. We will help you to write up the agreement and then close the complaint file.
Or:
If the complaint cannot be resolved through conciliation, the President may report to the Attorney General about the complaint and make recommendations for action.
4. Your questions
If you have any questions about how we will handle your complaint, please call our Complaints Infoline on (02) 9284 9600 or 1300 369 711 (local call cost).
