Qld: Discrimination complaints rise after federal office shuts

AAP General News (Australia)
08-02-2000
Qld: Discrimination complaints rise after federal office shuts

BRISBANE, Aug 2 AAP - The closure of a federal complaints office has led to a blowout
in the number of discrimination complaints made to Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Commission.

Attorney-General Matt Foley told a parliamentary estimates review committee today that
the closure of the Queensland office of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
had caused a 30 per cent increase in the number of complaints made to the state's complaint
body since 1998.

"It is an international scandal that, at a time that feelings of racial discrimination
are abroad ... that the Commonwealth should have withdrawn that (office) and left the
burden to Queensland," Mr Foley told the committee.

"What we see is the state Anti-Discrimination Commission having to deal with complaints
that should have been otherwise dealt with by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities
Commission."

Mr Foley said the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission had received 1,607 complaints
in the 1997/1998 financial year.

Next year, the commission expected to receive 2,222 complaints as compared to the 2,079
received last year.

"I'm informed that complaints on the basis of age have increased and complaints on
behalf of indigenous persons complaining of racial discrimination also rose," said Mr
Foley.

"I'm further informed that, as always, disability complaints and sexual harassment
complaints are the most prevalent."

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KEYWORD: DISCRIMINATION

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