Since 2002 the PILCH Homeless Persons' Legal Clinic (HPLC) has been lobbying for changes to the Equal Opportunity Act 1996 (Vic) (the Act) to make it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the basis of their social status. The HPLC takes social status to include homelessness, employment status and being in receipt of social security benefits. Remarkably these attributes are not protected attributes under the Act, which means that it is currently lawful to discriminate against someone if they are homeless.

Consultations conducted by the HPLC over the last 5 years have shown that discrimination on the basis of social status is widespread, systemic and often hidden. The HPLC's research and experience has also demonstrated the negative and pervasive effects of discrimination homeless people. A 2006 HPLC survey found that 60 per cent of homeless people have been discriminated against by goods and services providers including accommodation, education and health services. One man stated that ‘after walking into a pub, I was asked if I had any money before they would serve me’. Another commented that, ‘in shops if you are not dressed neatly or in a suit they take longer to get to you then you get a bum steer, they just want to get rid of you’.

There is also evidence that such discrimination leads to feelings of exclusion, disempowerment and hopelessness.  As one person told the HPLC, discrimination makes him feel ‘pissed off, persecuted, sad, distressful, resentful, outraged, “small”, humiliated, confused, stressed out and lost’.

Despite this, the Government has failed to include homelessness as a protected attribute under the Equal Opportunity Bill 2010 (the Bill). The Bill is aimed to stamp out entrenched and systematic discrimination against disadvantaged groups and assist Victorian organisations to change discriminatory policies and practices. The HPLC is currently advocating for “homelessness” to be added as a protected attributed under the Bill.

Why add “homelessness” as an attribute in the Bill?
There is currently no legislation in Victoria or in Australia that provides equality and protection from discrimination to people who are homeless. While it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, age, sexuality, disability or other personal characteristics, it remains lawful to refuse someone service or employment because they are homeless.

A recent study showed that the public cost of someone remaining homeless is as much as $34,000 per person per year. Discrimination exacerbates social inequality by further disadvantaging those who are already disadvantaged. By eliminating discrimination against homeless people we can reduce this public cost.

Including homelessness in the Equal Opportunity Act would send a clear message that people who are homeless should be treated fairly. Adequate protection from discrimination would enable homeless people to access employment, accommodation and other goods and services on an equal footing with the rest of the community.

You can find out more about the discrimination faced by people experiencing homelessness by viewing our video of people’s stories.

Join PILCH and the Honourable Chris Maxwell, President of the Court of Appeal on 17 May 2024 for the third Walk for Justice.
The Walk will raise much needed funds for PILCH and its legal assistance schemes.

Date: 17 May 2010  |  Start time: 7.30am  |  Route: Steps of Parliament to Forecourt of the County Court

Cost: $15.00 for individual walkers and $130.00 per walking group of 10 individuals.

For more information and registration forms please visit www.pilch.org.au/walk

Many of us are all too aware of the vexed nature of family law matters. The issues are deeply complicated and in court, family law matters can be interminable and costly. Yet it remains harder to access assistance for a family dispute in Victoria than anywhere else in the country.

Along with its constituent bodies, the Law Council of Australia has long argued the need for an increase in funding for Australia's legal assistance sector. This argument has been strengthened recently by figures released in a report on legal aid funding which shows that Commonwealth legal aid funding has decreased by 12 per cent in real terms since 1996-97. The Law Council is currently undertaking a national campaign, "Legal Aid Matters", urging the Government to address the crucial issue of legal assistance sector funding and improving access to justice for some of society's most vulnerable members.

To complement this national campaign, PILCH, together with the Victorian Bar, the Law Institute of Victoria, Women's Legal Service and with the support of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, are working on a specific campaign targeted at legal aid funding for family law matters. In February 2008, Victoria Legal Aid scaled back its services in family law due to funding constraints. The VLA 2008/09 Annual Report recorded that in the 18 months prior, the Commonwealth had reduced its funding by 30 per cent. This led to a decrease in the number of grants of legal assistance available in Commonwealth family law matters in 2008-09, and a correlating increase in requests to community legal centres and the pro bono sector. To illustrate the increase in demand, PILCH has experienced a 97 per cent increase in requests for pro bono legal assistance over the last three years. Whilst pro bono can play an important part in improving access to justice, it should not fill the gap where Legal Aid funding falls short. We therefore encourage you all to support the "Legal Aid Matters" campaign for additional legal aid funding. 

The campaign will comprise of a rally outside the County Court on April 28 at 9:30am and a letter writing campaign to local Federal MPs expressing support for increased legal aid funding, using family law matters to highlight the impact of the crisis. We hope to see you all at the rally and encourage your support for this important campaign.  Further details about the rally will be available on the PILCH website.

PILCH Global Community Projects:
Transparency International – Armenian Chapter
Transparency International is a global network comprising more than 90 national bodies committed to leading the fight against corruption globally. As part of its lobbying efforts towards implementing reforms to achieve sustainable and accountable management of state-owned natural resources in the former Soviet republic of Armenia, Transparency International is compiling a comparative report on best practice across a number of countries (including Australia) where these principles are more developed and entrenched.

PILCH is currently working to identify a PILCH member firm with expertise in this area to assist Transparency International by preparing a memorandum of advice on Australian best practice in this area which will in turn assist the Armenian Chapter to advocate more effectively for prudent and transparent practices in Armenia.    

Chasing justice and elephants: an update on progress towards the rule of law in Lao PDR
In the June 2009 edition of PILCH Matters, we published an article by young Australian lawyer Chris Sibree, who was at that time working for the Lao Bar Association (LBA) as a Project Officer through the AusAID Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program. Chris reported on his experience of living and working in the country that claims the distressing title of having been the most heavily bombed country on earth. Chris was clearly moved by the challenges faced by the LBA in sourcing basic legal and professional skills training for its lawyers, many of whom have little or no formal training.

Since that time, PILCH has secured the assistance of its member firm, Freehills to provide a series of workshops in Lao’s capital city Vientiane throughout 2010. Each of these workshops will focus on an area where new laws are required to be implemented as a precondition to Lao’s accession to the World Trade Organisation.

Recently, Freehills lawyers presented the first full day workshop of this series on Intellectual Property.  A second IP workshop has been scheduled for 12 May, and 2 more workshops on establishment of Lao’s stock exchange and general commercial law issues are being developed for delivery later this year.  Despite this exciting initiative, there is still significant scope for Australian lawyers to assist with legal reform and training and by donation of legal texts and other resources. Interested practitioners and firms should contact PILCH.

PILCH Completes Seminar Series on Women’s Rights
In March 2010, PILCH completed its seminar series on women’s rights.  Approximately 180 people from diverse sectors attended the five workshops/seminars, two of which were held in regional areas.  Participants feedback was overwhelmingly positive and an evaluation of the series is currently underway.  Materials from the workshops are available here. PILCH would like to extend its thanks to the Victorian Women’s Trust and all of its partners (the Australian Human Rights Commission, Loddon Campaspe CLC, the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, the Institute for International Law and the Humanities, the YWCA, and the Department of Planning and Community Development) for generously supporting the seminar series. 

Homeless Persons’ Liaison Officer (HPLO)
Renee Sinclair commenced in a new position at PILCH as the Homeless Persons’ Liason Officer. This role is part of a joint program between the Victorian Department of Justice, the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria and the PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic. The role of the HPLO is to support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness before, during and after their legal issue has concluded. The HPLO will assist people to understand and engage with the court process, as well as helping them to access other support services in the community.

Protecting your website, training materials, logo and name : On Tuesday 13 April 2010  lawyers from Minter Ellison provided basic intellectual property law training to over 60 not-for-profit (NFP) organisations. The training was very well-received and we thank Minter Ellison for their generous pro bono support in hosting and presenting at this seminar.

Changing the rules of your Victorian Incorporated Association : With a raft of changes proposed to the Associations Incorporation Act legislation in 2010 (which will affect Victoria’s 35,000 incorporated association), we are anticipating that this seminar on Thursday 13 May will be a very popular one. Freehills will host and present this seminar for NFP community organisations - details are here.

Not-for-profit legal seminars CBD : PilchConnect will run a repeat training seminar for NFPs on Legal responsibilities of NFP Board and Committee of Management members.  The session provides participants with a general introduction to good governance and the legal duties of Committee of Management/Board members. Our first CBD session was held in February 2010 (with the generous pro bono support of Clayton Utz) and was sold out - with over 90 NFP participants attending.  A repeat session will be held on Friday May 14 (with the generous support of the Melbourne University Law School who have donated the venue). Details are here.

Melbourne University Law Masters subject on not-for-profit legal issues Sue Woodward and others from the PilchConnect team will be teaching a Masters subject called Not-for-profit organisations: current regulatory and governance issues at Melbourne University's Law School in early June 2010. The course is full fee paying, and is suitable for both lawyers and non-lawyers with relevant experience, including those with a strong not-for-profit background. For more information: Melbourne University Masters Subject, or e-mail us at:  connect@pilch.org.au

Visit by UK Charity Commissioner Save this date! Friday 18 June, 7.30 – 9.30 for light breakfast. Key note speaker Mr David Locke from the Charity Commission for England and Wales with observations from Robert Fitzgerald (Productivity Commissioner). Lively Q and A to follow. Thanks to NAB for supporting David’s visit and hosting the event.  To register your interest please email connect@pilch.org.au

Australian Charity Lawyers Association: PilchConnect lawyers have joined this new professional association and will assist with Melbourne events. The Australian Charity Lawyers Association was established in June 2009 in consultation with a group of senior members of the judiciary and legal profession who have a longstanding commitment to the work of the charity and not for profit sector.  It has the dual objectives of advancing the education of our members and the public in charity law, and improving the administration of charities by contributing to the development and reform of charity law, for the benefit of the sector as a whole.  For more information about events or membership contact sue.woodward@pilch.org.au

Victoria’s Integrity and Anti-Corruption System Review
PILCH recently lodged a submission to the Public Sector Standards Commissioner (PSSC) in relation to the PSSC’s review of the efficiency and effectiveness of Victoria’s integrity and anti-corruption systems.  The submission focused on an analysis of Victorian investigation mechanisms currently available in respect of complaints of abuses of police powers and the extent to which those mechanisms fall short of human rights obligations. Download the submission

Equal Opportunity Bill 2010
In March 2010, PILCH made a submission to the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee on its Review of the Equal Opportunity Bill 2010 (Vic).  PILCH made a recommendation that ‘homelessness’ and ‘irrelevant criminal record’ should be included in the list of protected attributes in the EO Bill.  Other recommendations included: all permanent exceptions should be repealed; the maximum period of operation of exemptions should not be extended from three to five years; and, adequate funding for the equal opportunity regime should be guaranteed. Download the submission  (137.2 KB)

Hate Crimes
HPLC prepared a joint submission, with the Council to Homeless Persons, on the review of Victoria’s hate crime laws, Review of Identity Motivated Hate Crime, being conducted by former Justice Geoff Eames. Download the submission

Inquiry into Victorian Public Housing
HPLC lodged a submission into the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into the adequacy and future direction of public housing.  Chris and James also provided testimony before the parliamentary committee.  They were also accompanied by two members of our Consumer Advisory Group. It was also vital that the committee hear from people who have experienced homelessness and the public housing system.  Their testimony was confidential, but nearly had some of the committee members in tears, as they told of their experiences in the housing system. Download the submission

Victims of Crime
Thanks to Freehills for their assistance with preparing our submission into Victims’ Compensation.  While people experiencing homelessness may resort to crime to survive, many more are victims of violence and criminal activity on the streets. Our submission considers the current Victims of Crime Compensation Scheme from the perspective of people experiencing homelessness and suggests reforms to improve the operation of the scheme for people experiencing homelessness.  Download the submission

Associations Incorporation Bill (Vic) 2010
PilchConnect was successful in its request for the Victorian Government to release an Exposure Draft of this Bill so we could examine the detail, particularly around penalties and plain language drafting.  We also wanted the community sector to have an opportunity to provide comments - given that the proposed reforms will affect over 35,000 NFPs in Victoria (many are very small groups). PilchConnect has used evidence from our inquiry, phone advice and referral work, and our understanding of some of the issues faced by small-medium NFP organisations, to inform our detailed submission, available here.

Productivity Commission report on NFP sector
We have prepared a table outlining our comments on the key regulatory reform recommendations made in the Final Report: see here. We are still waiting on the Federal Government’s response to this report.

Proposal to extend Victoria’s equal opportunity laws to volunteers 
As reported in the last edition of Pilch Matters, PilchConnect made a submission in support of the proposal to extend the laws to volunteers, although we raised some concerns about the drafting of the provisions which we thought may be confusing for the NFP sector. However, on 24 March the Government moved (their own) amendment to the volunteer provisions in the Bill which will mean that now only the Part 6 (sexual harassment) provisions of the Act will apply to volunteers and unpaid workers. See here.

Submission on change to reporting requirements for companies limited by guarantee
After receiving advice that the Treasurer is going to proceed with the reforms in the current form, we have been making additional representations opposing the removal of any public reporting by small NFPs that are incorporated as companies limited by guarantee. While we support a tiered reporting regime with the type of reporting (audited vs unaudited etc) proportionate to size, we believe that all incorporated NFPs should have some basic filing requirement. This point was outlined in our submission, see here.

In the last two months PILCH has written, contributed to or been featured in the following media and publications: 

Unethical Female Stereotyping in Reproductive Health, Simone Cusack (with Rebecca J. Cook and Bernard M. Dickens), 2010, 109 International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics (in press, available online 4 March)

Stereotyping Women in the Health Sector: Lessons from CEDAW, 2009, Simone Cusack (with Rebecca J. Cook), 16(1) Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 1 (in press)

More power for human rights watchdog, Carol Nader, The Age, 9 March 2010. Read online

Push comes to shove for drug traffickers, Melissa Fyfe, The Age, 21 March 2010. Read online 

Australia’s Human Rights Act, James Farrell & Caris Cadd, Parity, March 2010. Read online

[Title TBC], Chris Hartley & James Farrell, Parity, March 2010.

Right Now Radio, 3CR 855AM, 18 March 2025 (HPLC Manager/Principal Lawyer James Farrell talking about law and order electioneering)

Legal Help Eases Struggle to Survive, James Farrell, Stepping Up, April 2010. Read online

Become a Facebook fan of the HPLC online

Not-for-profit
PilchConnect was recently approached by a small NFP community organisation which has operated for 25 years in a facility they hire from the Local Council. The NFP had received a letter from the Council advising the NFP that the Council wanted to create a new hub of community services at the facility. The Council’s letter went on to state that they had sought legal advice as to the best way to do this and had decided that the NFPs operating at the facility should be wound up and that a new incorporated association would be created to manage the facility. The Council requested the NFP to follow the procedure necessary to wind up, in accordance with the legal advice they had received.

The NFP contacted PilchConnect for its own independent advice about the Local Council’s powers to require them to wind up. Hall and Wilcox generously accepted to advise the NFP on a pro bono basis in this matter. A lawyer in the firm’s Corporate and Commercial Group is assisting the NFP to understand their rights as an independent community organisation, limits of the Councils legal powers and the legal and practical options available to them.

Victims of human trafficking compensation
The Public Interest Law Scheme is assisting the Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH). ACRATH wishes to assist victims of human trafficking to obtain victims of crime compensation.

Victims of human trafficking do not typically apply for compensation from the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal (VOCAT). However, ACRATH believes that victims of human trafficking fulfill the relevant criteria and that obtaining compensation for these victims will assist them to rebuild their lives.

As applications by victims of human trafficking fall outside the usual types of applications to VOCAT, their applications will require particular attention and legal assistance. In addition, ACRATH is concerned that if each victim needs to start from scratch in convincing VOCAT in their application that human trafficking is a crime that renders them eligible for compensation, this will lead to applicants 'reinventing the wheel' each time and could lead to inconsistent results. ACRATH wishes to make the process more accessible and less daunting for victims of human trafficking.

PILCH is seeking to refer ACRATH to a law firm for assistance in two ways. First, ACRATH requires legal assistance to prepare and lodge several VOCAT applications for human trafficking victims. Secondly, ACRATH seeks assistance to create a set of resources and precedents that can be used by other victims of human trafficking to apply for compensation from VOCAT.

Prison Issues
The Victorian prison population has increased by more than 50% in the last 10 years, despite the Victorian crime rate being at its lowest level since 1993. Prisoners’ Legal Service (PLS) is a Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre program that provides legal advice and assistance to prisoners and their families in this area of critical need.  
 
As a result of its very limited resources, PLS often needs to draw on the knowledge and specialized expertise of practitioners in the wider legal community in relation to legal issues commonly arising in the prison system. For example, from time to time PLS is approached by the families of prisoners who have died in custody seeking advice on the coronial process, any related criminal proceedings and potential civil claims. PILCH recently facilitated the assistance of a senior litigation specialist, Daniel Marquet at Corrs Chambers Westgarth to provide the PLS lawyers with advice on certain technical aspects of the interplay between the coronial process and civil proceedings. This contribution will greatly assist PLS to better advise its clients on these issues in the future.