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Where am I now? Lawlink > Anti-Discrimination Board > Making a complaint
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Making a complaint
 Can the Anti-Discrimination Board help me?
Can I resolve the complaint myself?
What can the Anti-Discrimination Board do?
Is there a time limit?
How do I complain?
Complaint form
What will the Anti-Discrimination Board do with my complaint?
What if I have a disability?
Privacy Statement
More information about complaining to the Anti-Discrimination Board
Can the Anti-Discrimination Board help me?
Discrimination means treating someone unfairly because they belong to a particular group of people or have a particular characteristic.
Only certain types of discrimination are covered by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977. We can only investigate complaints about these types of discrimination. More information on types of discrimination....
Can I resolve the complaint myself?
If possible, you should first try to talk to the person or organisation that treated you unfairly. Use whatever help you can to do this, such as your union or a group for people in your situation. Also, the organisation that treated you unfairly may have a grievance procedure that you can follow. More information on how to sort out a complaint yourself.....
What can the Anti-Discrimination Board do?
- investigate complaints about the types of discrimination covered by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act
- help you and the other side find a way of solving the problem.
The Board can't:
- take sides
- decide whether discrimination happened or not
- give you legal advice.
If the Board can't help you solve the problem, you might be able to take your complaint to the Equal Opportunity Division of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal, which can make a decision like a court.Is there a time limit?
Yes. The Board can only help you if the discrimination happened in the past 12 months. If you make a complaint about something that happened more than 12 months ago, the Board may refuse to investigate your complaint. If you want the Board to investigate something that happened more than 12 months ago, please tell us why you were late in lodging this complaint.
How do I complain?
You have to complain in writing. You can download and fill in the Board's complaint form, or you can write a letter addressed to the President of the Anti-Discrimination Board, with the information asked for on the form. More information about what to put in your letter if you don't use the form....
You can send, or fax the complaint form or letter to the Board.
We also accept complaints on your behalf from organisations such as unions and other representative bodies. However, the complaint must make it clear that you agree with the complaint being made and you must be named in the complaint. In some circumstances you may also be required to show you consent to the complaint being made on your behalf. If you want to make a complaint on behalf of a child or a person with a disability, contact the Board for more information.
Complaint form
You can download the Anti-Discrimination Board's complaint form as a PDF document or as a Word document. The Word document is read-only so you will need to click "Save as" to save any changes you type into it.
ADB Complaint Form (PDF - 117 Kb)
ADB Complaint Form (Word document - 67 Kb)
Download Adobe Acrobat to read the pdf
What will the Anti-Discrimination Board do with my complaint?
We will contact you by phone or letter within two weeks of getting your complaint. When we talk to you, we'll get any other information we need, explain what we can and can't do, and discuss the best way of handling your complaint. We will only contact whoever you're complaining about when you understand all of this.
The person you are complaining about is called the respondent. We will send the respondent a copy of your complaint form and any paperwork you have provided, along with a covering letter from the Board explaining the law. The respondent will then have a chance to write to us with their side of the story. If this doesn’t solve the situation, the next step is usually a meeting held at the Board, called a conciliation conference.
What if I have a disability?
The complaint handling staff will try to accommodate your disability by providing you with any special assistance you need to make a complaint and participate in the process of resolving your complaint. More information.....
Privacy statement
Personal information provided to the Anti-Discrimination Board is protected under privacy legislation, including the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW).
The Board uses the personal information you provide in your complaint and in other communications with the Board to assist it to perform its statutory function of investigating complaints of unlawful discrimination.
For details of the Board’s collection and use of your personal information and your rights in regard to the information held about you by the Board, please contact the Board.
More information about complaining to the Anti-Discrimination Board
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