Discrimination

Understanding discrimination and harassment

Discrimination means making choices about how we treat other people. Those choices can be made using real and relevant information, or they can be based on prejudice, stereotypes and bias.Some discrimination is unlawful (for example, sexual harassment and racial discrimination) and some is not (for example, a coach who shows favouritism towards their own child over other players).All discrimination is undesirable if it leads to unfair treatment of players, members or other participants in recreation and sport.

What is fair discrimination?

A good example of fair discrimination in sport relates to team selection.If you are a coach/selector, and you have more players than you can fit in your team, you must discriminate between the available players. You must choose who will be in the starting team and what positions they will play, to arrive at the best possible team. In junior and sub-junior sport you have the additional responsibility to ensure fair participation.Those choices should be based upon relevant criteria such as ability, attitude, effort, and attendance at practise.These are all fair and legitimate criteria to apply to team selection.

What is unlawful discrimination?

Equal opportunity laws make discrimination on various grounds unlawful:

• race
• sex
• age
• disability
• pregnancy
• sexuality
• marital status

Sexual harassment and victimisation are also unlawful.

However, things like age, gender and disability can have significant effects on sporting ability. These differences are most evident at the elite sport level. For example, compare the power of the best male tennis players with the power of the best female tennis players.

To take into account these differences, and to make sure there is fair competition, the law allows for teams to be organised into groups such as age groups, or sometimes single-sex groups.

Here are some examples of unfair and possibly unlawful discrimination:

Sex Discrimination

Prizes of different value are given for male and female competition in the same club.

Racial Discrimination

An Aboriginal player is overlooked for team selection, due to his race.

Age Discrimination

A club refuses to clear players to other teams because they are under 21.

Marital Status Discrimination

A player is deliberately excluded from team activities and social functions after she divorces her husband who is a club official.

Pregnancy Discrimination

A woman is dropped from her softball team when she reveals she is pregnant.

Sexuality Discrimination

A footballer is ridiculed by his team mates after his homosexuality is disclosed.

Impairment or Disability Discrimination

A junior player is overlooked because of her mild epilepsy.

Sexual Harassment

A male tennis coach keeps putting his hand on a woman’s bottom during coaching sessions, making her feel very uncomfortable.

Victimisation

A player is ostracised by her coach for complaining about his racist behaviour to another club official.