Report it! case studies

  • A bystander reported that a young hijab wearing mother with two small children was approached by an unknown person in the bus mall who yelled at her, calling her a terrorist and threatening her. The person then started to follow the woman and children around. She reported being terrified. To escape the abuse, the woman and her children sought safety in the shop of a local charity. A support worker from the organisation assisted her and walked with her to the police station to report the incident.
  • A young person of Korean-Australian background visiting his local library was told by an older male client to ‘go back to your country’. Staff at the library intervened and asked the man to behave respectfully to other clients. The man complied for a while but later called the young Korean person a ‘chink’. Staff again intervened and banned the older client from the library for a day. The young person was however extremely upset and left soon after.
  • A young female employee who had been bullied and sexually harassed by another employee over a long period of time reported her concern that the processes for dealing with her complaint to management left her feeling that she had been treated unfairly. She reported that she believed that the alleged perpetrator was given more opportunity to have their say and that she had been provided with little information about what was happening. As a result her health deteriorated and she was forced to take more time off work. She believes that the process for dealing with complaints is too arduous and that the alleged perpetrator is given more rights than the victim. As a result she felt she had no option other than to seek the services of a lawyer to have the situation resolved.
  • A student reported his concern about stickers that has been produced and were being circulated at his educational institution which were disparaging of LGBTI people.
  • A member of parliament reported receiving multiple copies of anti-Semitic hate speech in their office. They advised that they had also reported the material to the Australian Federal Police. The source of the material was unknown and was sent anonymously.
  • A support teacher at a high school reported several instances of racist abuse against a young migrant student. The student was sad and angry about their ongoing treatment and asked for Equal Opportunity Tasmania support to help resolve the problem.