The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) was amended on 20 June 2011 with the most substantial change relating to the expansion of the definition of sexual harassment. To succeed, a claim for sexual harassment now only requires that a reasonable person would anticipate ‘the possibility’ of the person harassed being offended, humiliated or intimidated because of the conduct. The reasonable person’s assessment now also takes into account a number of subjective factors, including characteristics of the affected person. This amendment means that a broader range of behaviour will be classified as unlawful sexual harassment – in fact, any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature is now likely to be sexual harassment.
View PDF