Page 1873 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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The bill includes genetic information as a protected attribute. This will prevent unfair or unjustifiable requirements that people undergo genetic testing or an unfair reliance on genetic information. Genetic information is not defined in the bill and will have its ordinary meaning.
In addition to the protection against disability discrimination, a person will also be protected from discrimination on the basis of being genetically predisposed to a disability.
The bill includes a new attribute of a person being an intersex person. The inclusion of intersex status as a protected attribute was previously recommended by LRAC in its report on legal recognition of sex and gender diversity in the ACT. Intersex status is also a protected attribute under the commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
The bill makes it unlawful to generally discriminate on the grounds of a person’s immigration status. The bill defines immigration status as being an immigrant, a refugee or an asylum seeker or holding any kind of visa under the commonwealth Migration Act. The bill adopts a wider concept of immigration status on the basis that a person may be vulnerable to discrimination because of the way they have joined our community.
There is a general exception relating to immigration status which means that it is not unlawful to discriminate against a person if, in the circumstances, consideration of a person’s immigration status is reasonable, having regard to all the relevant factors. This would allow for a person’s visa status and associated work rights to be taken into account when offering employment opportunities. Where discrimination is necessary because of a commonwealth or territory law, the discrimination will not be unlawful.
The Discrimination Act already provides that it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on the basis of a spent criminal conviction. The bill renames and expands this attribute to cover “irrelevant criminal record”, adopting the precedent of the Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Act and the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act. “Irrelevant criminal record” includes a record of a person having been charged with an offence—where proceedings are not finalised or are withdrawn—where a person has been acquitted of an offence, where a person’s conviction has been quashed or set aside or where the person has been served with an infringement notice.
Agencies will still be able to access criminal record information where that is authorised or required by a territory law—for example, under the Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 scheme.
The bill makes it generally unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of the physical features of a person. Physical features are defined as meaning a person’s height, weight, size or other bodily features. Physical features are recognised as a protected attribute under the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.
Specific exceptions will apply where the discrimination is on the basis of physical features in employment or work if the employment is for a dramatic or artistic performance, photographic or modelling work, or similar employment or work, or
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