Discrimination means being treated unfairly because of a personal characteristic that is protected by law, like age, sex, gender identity, race or disability. These are known as ‘protected characteristics’.
In Victoria, protected characteristics are:
age
breastfeeding
gender identity
disability
requiring an assistance aid (for example, a wheelchair or assistance animal) (
employment activity
industrial activity
profession, trade or occupation
lawful sexual activity
marital status
status as a parent or carer
physical features
pregnancy
race
sex
sexual orientation
sex characteristics (physical features relating to sex)
political or religious beliefs or activities
an expunged homosexual conviction (a person who has successfully applied to have their historic homosexual conviction removed from the record)
a spent conviction (some kinds of convictions may be ‘spent’, and not appear on a person’s criminal record if they do not reoffend within a certain period).
Discrimination, in relation to communication, could involve the use of verbally offensive or abusive language or images to discriminate against any of the protected attributes listed above.
