I couldn't agree more - discrimination and bullying in the workplace is definately not handled in the correct way. In the end, it is usually the 'victim' of the discrimination or bullying that loses their job. What message does this give to the perpetrator and the other employees? The perpetrator gets to keep their job and continue bullying the other employees. The remaining employees are then afraid to report further cases of discrimination or bullying, or they too will lose their jobs.

This has to change.

The perpetrators should be fired, to give the clear message that this behaviour will not be allowed in the workplace. Until we do this, nothing will change and discrimination will be allowed to continue.

A great source of information for empoloyees in a bad situation can be obtained through
http://www.badapplebullies.com/

Welcome to Workchoices the Federal legislation that overrides State legislation. The only way to stop workplace bullying and intididation is to vote Labor in the coming Federal election. Continual bullying and intimidation cost me my job of 21 years, I could take no more and had a second nervous breakdown from which I have never recovered.

The "investigations" page of the Bad Apple Bullies website http://www.badapplebullies.com/investigations.htm describes the way in which the Queensland public service investigation processes can be abused to "find no evidence" of workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, discrimination and victimisation or "payback".
There is a culture of fear in Queensland. Academics and teachers can be punished for engaging in professional discussion.

NSW – *not SA* – was the first state to have laws against discrimination with our 1977 Anti-Discrimination Act. The NSW ADA is the second piece of anti-discrimination legislation in Australia, the first being the federal Racial Discrimination Act of 1975.

It took 7 more years for the federal government to finally legislate against gender discrimination with the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act of 1986.

At the state level, NSW welcomed their ADA in 1977, followed 7 years later by the WA and SA with their Equal Opportunity Acts in 1984. QLD and ACT followed suit in 1991. Tasmania was the last state with the Tasmania Anti-Discrimination Act of 1998, 21 years after NSW.

1977 – 2007: 30 Years of Anti-Discrimination Law in NSW
What would you do without it?

Shonga,
I was very disturbed by your story of workplace bullying -

... Continual bullying and intimidation cost me my job of 21 years, I could take no more and had a second nervous breakdown from which I have never recovered.
Posted by SHONGA, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 11:00:37 AM ...

- but then I realised that you have made four posts in response to different articles today.
Is your workplace bullying story really true?
Or is blanket blogging just a pre-election strategy adopted by some members of the Labor Party?
The Labor Party and the unions need to take responsibility themselves for dealing with the workplace bullying in the public service.
And by "dealing with the problem" I do not mean just the energetic production of red herrings to distract attention from the real issue - the systemic workplace abuse of "subordinate" Australian public servants by slightly more senior public servants.
Yes, this is a Federal issue, but it is very much a state issue as well.
There is not a lot of point in being a member of a union if that union has a policy of allowing members to be bullied.