Function 1

Function 1: The Commissioner must foster and encourage amongst members of the public informed and unprejudiced attitudes with a view to eliminating discrimination in the grounds to which this Act applies

Training and education

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Total – participants	302	238	458	304	389
Total – sessions	31	20	39	20	29

Note: From 1 July 2021 office no longer delivered training directly to the public. In 2021-22 the number of training sessions delivered only includes sessions delivered by partner training providers

Matters received

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
No. of enquiries received	566	607	659	647	553
% difference from previous year	-1%	7%	9%	-2%	-15%

	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Telephone	401	71%	390	64%	427	65%	460	71%	384	69%
Email	85	15%	152	25%	220	33%	170	26%	152	27%
Online form	59	10%	9	1%	2	0%	9	1%	6	1%
Letter	3	1%	3	0%	4	1%	8	1%	7	1%
In person	18	3%	51	8%	4	1%	0	0%	3	1%
Hardcopy form	0	0%	0	0%	2	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Facebook	0	0%	2	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	0%

Total	566	100%	607	100%	659	100%	647	100%	553	100%

	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
Disability	163	27%	176	27%	154	21%	230	34%	138	23%
Race	54	9%	61	10%	74	10%	42	6%	53	9%
Sex	43	7%	31	5%	39	5%	15	2%	31	5%
Age	38	6%	20	3%	43	6%	32	5%	26	4%
Sexual Harassment	35	6%	49	8%	41	6%	22	3%	13	2%
Caring Responsibilities	26	4%	16	2%	14	2%	14	2%	12	2%
Pregnancy	15	2%	15	2%	15	2%	12	2%	12	2%
Victimisation	14	2%	13	2%	21	3%	5	1%	12	2%
Gender Identity	2	0%	2	0%	14	2%	6	1%	8	1%
Marital Status	4	1%	1	0%	2	0%	2	0%	4	1%
Sexual Orientation	6	1%	5	1%	16	2%	4	1%	2	0%
Association with a Child	2	0%	2	0%	4	1%	1	0%	2	0%
Religious Dress	0	0%	9	1%	5	1%	2	0%	0	0%
Intersex Status	0	0%	3	0%	2	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Identity of Spouse or Partner	1	0%	1	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Enquiries with no grounds under Equal Opportunity Act 1984	180	29%	150	23%	189	26%	219	33%	199	33%
General EOSA enquiries	29	5%	87	14%	87	12%	64	10%	86	14%

Total	612	100%	641	100%	720	100%	670	100%	598	100%

	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
	No.	%	No	%	No	%	No.	%	No.	%
Employment	278	53%	285	55%	249	47%	240	47%	204	49%
Goods and Services	136	26%	116	22%	134	25%	165	32%	108	26%
Housing/Land/Accommodation	29	6%	38	7%	35	7%	45	9%	46	11%
Education /Training	47	9%	53	10%	57	11%	26	5%	33	8%
Clubs and Associations	28	5%	30	6%	47	9%	20	4%	20	5%
Qualification	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	9	2%	3	1%
Advertising	4	1%	0	0%	4	1%	6	1%	5	1%

Total	523	100%	522	100%	526	100%	511	100%	419	100%

Note: enquiries that do not relate to an area of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 are not included in this table.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Complaints lodged in year	179	181	230	224	163
Complaints closed in year	195	160	258	218	182
% difference of lodged complaints from previous year	-17%	1%	27%	-3%	-32%

	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Online form	112	63%	141	78%	162	70%	178	79%	119	73%
Email	45	25%	27	15%	37	16%	36	16%	33	20%
Hardcopy form	17	9%	9	5%	22	10%	3	1%	5	3%
Letter	3	2%	4	2%	6	3%	4	2%	4	2%
Telephone	1	1%	0	0%	3	1%	3	1%	1	1%
Fax	1	1%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	1%
In Person	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Facebook	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%

Total	179	100%	181	100%	230	100%	224	100%	163	100%

	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Disability	31	28%	50	21%	46	25%	41	35%	41	32%
Sexual Harassment	16	14%	46	20%	22	12%	14	12%	30	24%
Sex	14	13%	26	11%	20	11%	8	7%	15	12%
Age	4	4%	16	7%	13	7%	7	6%	9	7%
Race	7	6%	24	10%	17	9%	12	10%	8	6%
Gender Identity	1	1%	11	5%	1	1%	3	3%	5	4%
Victimisation	12	11%	33	14%	22	12%	19	16%	4	3%
Sexual Orientation	0	0%	6	3%	3	2%	3	3%	4	3%
Caring Responsibilities	7	6%	3	1%	7	4%	3	3%	3	2%
Identity of Spouse	2	2%	8	3%	2	1%	2	2%	3	2%
Whistleblower*	9	8%	5	2%	0	0%	3	3%	2	2%
Association with a Child	1	1%	1	0%	3	2%	1	1%	1	1%
Other	0	0%	0	0%	27	14%	0	0%	1	1%
Marital Status	2	2%	1	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	1%
Religious Appearance or Dress	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	1%	0	0%
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	1%	0	0%
Pregnancy	5	5%	3	1%	4	2%	0	0%	0	0%

Total Grounds	111	100%	233	100%	187	100%	118	100%	127	100%

* Refers to complaints of victimisation under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 1993 (SA), the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018 (SA) or the Independent Commissioner for Corruption Act 2012 (SA). Notes - there may be more than one ground per complaint. Data in the table will vary slightly from year to year due to database corrections and changes during the period a complaint is open. ‘Other’ added from 2020-21.

	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Employment	79	71%	163	70%	66	58%	46	56%	49	67%
Goods and Services	11	10%	29	12%	27	24%	21	26%	13	18%
Education/Training	15	13%	36	15%	10	9%	10	12%	5	7%
Clubs and Associations	3	3%	3	1%	4	4%	4	5%	2	3%
Advertising	0	0%	0	0%	3	3%	0	0%	1	1%
Housing/Land/Accommodation	4	4%	2	1%	2	2%	0	0%	3	4%
Qualification	0	0%	0	0%	1	1%	1	1%	0	0%

Total Areas	112	100%	233	100%	113	100%	82	100%	73	100%

	*Area*
*Ground*	Advertising	Clubs and Associations	Education and training	Employment	Goods and Services	Housing, land and accommodation	Total
Disability	0	1	3	24	9	2	39
Sexual Harassment	0	0	0	27	0	0	27
Sex	2	0	1	7	5	0	15
Age	0	0	0	7	1	1	9
Race	0	0	1	5	1	1	8
Gender Identity	0	1	1	3	0	0	5
Sexual Orientation	0	0	0	2	2	0	4
Victimisation	0	0	1	3	0	0	4
Caring Responsibilities	0	0	1	2	0	0	3
Identity of Spouse or Partner	0	0	1	0	2	0	3
Whistleblower*	0	0	0	2	0	0	2
Association with a Child	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Marital Status	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Intersex status	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Pregnancy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Religious Dress	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Total of Areas	2	2	10	83	20	4	121

* Refers to complaints of victimisation under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 1993 (SA), the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018 (SA) or the Independent Commissioner for Corruption Act 2012 (SA).

Note: there may be more than one ground and area per complaint.

	Employment
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Sexual Harassment	14	41	20	20	27
Disability	16	26	21	12	24
Sex	11	18	15	6	7
Age	3	12	10	6	7
Race	3	14	9	8	5
Victimisation	9	26	14	14	3
Gender Identity	1	4	0	1	3
Sexual Orientation	0	5	1	3	2
Whistleblower *	8	5	0	3	2
Caring Responsibilities	5	2	4	2	2
Association with a Child	1	1	0	0	1
Identity of Spouse or Partner	1	5	0	2	0
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0	0	1	0
Religious appearance or dress	0	0	0	1	0
Pregnancy	5	3	4	0	0
Marital Status	2	1	0	0	0
Intersex Status	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	13	0	0

Total	79	163	111	79	83

	Goods and services
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Disability	2	9	16	18	9
Sex	2	7	3	1	5
Sexual Orientation	0	1	2	0	2
Identity of Spouse or Partner	0	1	0	0	2
Race	3	6	4	4	1
Age	0	1	3	1	1
Victimisation	1	0	3	2	0
Sexual Harassment	0	2	0	2	0
Association with a Child	0	0	2	1	0
Gender Identity	1	2	1	1	0
Caring Responsibilities	1	0	1	1	0
Intersex Status	0	0	2	0	0
Whistleblower *	1	0	0	0	0
Marital Status	0	0	0	0	0
Pregnancy	0	0	0	0	0
Religious appearance or dress	0	0	0	0	0
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	8	0	0

Total	11	29	45	31	20

	Education, training and qualifications
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Disability	9	11	6	8	3
Victimisation	2	6	3	4	1
Caring Responsibilities	1	1	2	3	1
Race	1	4	1	2	1
Sex	1	1	1	1	1
Gender Identity	0	5	0	1	1
Identity of Spouse or Partner	1	2	0	0	1
Marital Status	0	0	0	0	1
Sexual Harassment	0	3	2	0	0
Age	0	3	0	0	0
Whistleblower *	0	0	0	0	0
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0	0	0	0
Association with a Child	0	0	0	0	0
Intersex Status	0	0	0	0	0
Pregnancy	0	0	0	0	0
Religious appearance or dress	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Orientation	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	5	0	0

Total	15	36	20	19	10

	Clubs and associations
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Disability	2	2	2	4	1
Gender Identity	0	0	0	0	1
Victimisation	0	1	2	0	0
Race	0	0	1	0	0
Sexual Harassment	1	0	0	0	0
Age	0	0	0	0	0
Caring Responsibilities	0	0	0	0	0
Sex	0	0	0	0	0
Whistleblower *	0	0	0	0	0
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0	0	0	0
Association with a Child	0	0	0	0	0
Identity of Spouse or Partner	0	0	0	0	0
Intersex Status	0	0	0	0	0
Marital Status	0	0	0	0	0
Pregnancy	0	0	0	0	0
Religious appearance or dress	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Orientation	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	1	0	0

Total	3	3	6	4	2

	Housing/Land/Accommodation
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Disability	2	2	1	0	2
Age	1	0	0	0	1
Race	0	0	0	0	1
Association with a Child	0	0	1	0	0
Sex	0	0	1	0	0
Sexual Harassment	1	0	0	0	0
Victimisation	0	0	0	0	0
Caring Responsibilities	0	0	0	0	0
Gender Identity	0	0	0	0	0
Pregnancy	0	0	0	0	0
Whistleblower *	0	0	0	0	0
Aiding Unlawful Act	0	0	0	0	0
Identity of Spouse or Partner	0	0	0	0	0
Intersex Status	0	0	0	0	0
Marital Status	0	0	0	0	0
Religious appearance or dress	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Orientation	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0	0	0

Total	4	2	3	0	4

Note due to low or zero numbers annually, a separate table of data is not supplied for advertising complaints.

Matter outcomes

Enquiries – Outcomes	2018-19		2019-20		2020-21		2021-22		2022-23
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
General information provided	195	35%	165	27%	347	47%	337	53%	174	31%
Referred elsewhere (out of EOSA jurisdiction)	164	29%	98	16%	96	13%	95	15%	109	20%
No action required	16	3%	49	8%	84	11%	79	12%	102	18%
Complaint form and information package sent	16	3%	14	2%	53	7%	38	6%	65	12%
Referred to EOSA electronic complaint form	97	17%	39	6%	25	3%	31	5%	49	9%
Referred to advocate (to assist with EO/other Issue)	21	4%	6	1%	3	0%	26	4%	28	5%
Referred to Australian Human Rights Commission	13	2%	6	1%	1	0%	16	3%	12	2%
Referred to EOSA Website	40	7%	226	37%	120	16%	9	1%	10	2%
Media response provided/Presentation requested/Other	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	6	1%	3	1%
Appointment made for interview with EOSA enquiry officer	0	0%	0	0%	2	0%	1	0%	1	0%

Total	562	100%	603	100%	731	100%	638	100%	553	100%

Note: As of 2019-20, Report/Publications/Media response provided/Presentation requested/Other reported together.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Finalised complaints	206	176	235	218	182
Average no. months to finalise all complaints	4.6	2.6	2.5	2.3	2.8
Median no. months to finalise all complaints	2.6	2.3	2.0	1.7	1.0

Note: As at 2022-23, complaint finalisation times presented in months.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Resolved by conciliation^#	54	57	48	24	25
Expedited conciliation	*	*	*	*	14
Conciliation by conference	*	*	*	*	11
Declined by Commissioner	*	*	*	*	22
No conciliation attempted	*	*	*	*	20
After attempting conciliation	*	*	*	*	2
Withdrawn by complainant	*	*	*	*	7
No conciliation attempted	*	*	*	*	5
After attempting conciliation	*	*	*	*	2
Referred to tribunal by Commissioner	20	26	31	34	17
No conciliation attempted	*	*	*	*	4
After attempting conciliation	*	*	*	*	13
Total no. accepted complaints finalised	100	114	126	80	71

^#- Out of 41 attempted (21 attempted by conference, 20 attempted by expedited conciliation)
* - Improved data reporting at 2022/23. Some data not available from previous years.
Note - Of the 22 complaints declined by the Commissioner, 6 were referred to tribunal at the request of the complainant.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Apology	22	31	21	14	13
Financial compensation	17	25	20	7	12
Policy change/change in practice	6	14	11	9	8
Complainant satisfied with response	0	0	0	2	6
Other	5	11	13	3	4
Employment options improved (e.g. job offer)	5	4	4	0	2
Reasonable adjustment	4	5	5	1	1
Reference provided	5	2	5	0	1
Provision of goods/services/facilities	1	2	1	0	1
Other access achieved (e.g. mobility)	5	6	0	0	1
Staff training/development program	4	18	7	2	0
Undertaking to cease an action	1	3	0	1	0
Access to education/training	6	2	0	1	0
Private agreement	16	13	7	0	0
Access to/provision of accommodation	1	2	0	0	0
Access to club membership/benefits	0	0	0	0	0

Note: there may be more than one outcome per conciliation agreement.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Total financial compensation payments	$122,726	$173,114	$150,842	$44,000	$158,950
Average financial compensation payments	$7,219	$6,925	$9,428	$6,285	$15,895

Note: Individual agreements for financial compensation ranged from $600 to $80,000 in 2022-23.

Demographic data

	2022-23
	Enquiries	Complaints
Undisclosed	474	60
Female	40	50
Male	39	52
Non-binary	0	1
Transgender	0	0
Intersex	0	0

Total	553	163

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
0 - 9 years	2%	2%	3%	2%	1%
10 - 19 years	7%	6%	6%	4%	1%
20 - 29 years	6%	24%	16%	9%	13%
30 - 39 years	25%	27%	21%	15%	15%
40 - 49 years	13%	13%	15%	17%	14%
50 - 59 years	14%	13%	14%	14%	10%
60 - 69 years	5%	6%	9%	4%	7%
70 - 79 years	1%	2%	1%	5%	6%
80 + years	0%	0%	2%	0%	1%
Unknown age	23%	7%	14%	31%	31%

Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

Exemptions under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984

Section 92 of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 provides for applicants to apply to the SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) for an exemption from the Act for a specific purpose. SACAT provides the Commissioner with a copy of all applications received, to enable her to review the application and make any submissions she considers necessary before an application is considered by SACAT.

In 2022-23 the Commissioner responded to 7 exemption applications involving 14 applicants.

Applicant	Summary	Order
The State of South Australia, Department for Health and Wellbeing	Application for exemption to facilitate the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers.	Granted
Minister for Education, Training and Skills (SA)	Application for the renewal of an exemption in relation to the provision of education only to female students at a girls’ education campus.	Granted
Save the Children Australia	Application for exemption allowing the applicant to advertise for and employ female identifying persons only to provide specialist counsellors.	Granted
Cobham Aviation Services Australia Pty Ltd, Cobham SAR Services Pty Ltd, Cobham NAS Pty Ltd, Surveillance Australia Pty Ltd	Application for the renewal of an existing conditional exemption allowing the applicants to fulfil commercial contracts in the defence industry in South Australia	Granted
Lockheed Martin Australia Pty Limited, Lockheed Martin Global Inc, Sikorsky Aircraft Australia Ltd.	Application for the renewal of an existing conditional exemption allowing the applicants to fulfil commercial contracts in the defence industry in South Australia	Granted
ASC Pty Ltd, ASC AWD Shipbuilder Pty Ltd, ASC OPV Shipbuilder Pty Ltd	Application for the renewal of an existing conditional exemption allowing the applicants to fulfil commercial contracts in the defence industry in South Australia	Granted
Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd	Application for the renewal of an existing conditional exemption allowing the applicants to fulfil commercial contracts in the defence industry in South Australia	Granted

Function 2

Function 1

Training and education

Table 1: Training delivered

Matters received

Table 2: Enquiries received

Table 3: How enquiries were received

Table 4: Grounds of enquiry (across all areas)

Table 5: Areas of enquiry (across all grounds)

Table 6: Complaints received

Table 7: How complaints were received

Table 8: Grounds of accepted complaints (across all areas)

Table 9: Areas of accepted complaints (across all grounds)

Table 10: Accepted complaint grounds by area

Table 11: Accepted complaints by area - Employment

Table 12: Accepted complaints by area – Goods and services

Table 13: Accepted complaints by area – Education, training, and qualification

Table 14: Accepted complaints by area - Clubs and associations

Table 15: Accepted complaints by area – Housing, land, and accommodation

Matter outcomes

Table 16: Outcomes of enquiries

Table 17: Complaint finalisation

Table 18: Outcomes of accepted complaints finalised during 2022-23

Table 19: Outcomes from conciliations

Table 20: Financial compensation agreements from conciliations

Demographic data

Table 21: Gender identity of enquirers and complainants

Table 22: Age distribution of complainants (accepted complaints)

Exemptions under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984

Table 23: Summary of exemption applications received by the Commissioner in 2022-23.