October 2025
Moira*, an Aboriginal woman, lodged a racial vilification complaint with Anti-Discrimination NSW after she heard a staff member make a highly offensive and racist comment towards her as she was leaving her local hotel.
The matter was investigated by ADNSW.
Moira explained that she had previously had a good relationship with the employee, so she was shocked and deeply hurt by the incident. When she raised her concerns, the employee claimed that someone else had told him to say it.
The hotel brought in an independent investigator to look into what happened. After the investigation, the hotel said they could not confirm that the incident took place, but took Moira’s allegation very seriously. They explained that this behaviour was very out of character for the employee, who spoke limited English, and said he could not remember the incident. The hotel told the employee about the seriousness of the matter, and he was very concerned. The hotel also said it values and welcomes many Aboriginal customers from the local community and that this was the first complaint of this kind they had received.
The complaint was resolved in a conciliation conference on MS Teams. The hotel agreed to provide cultural sensitivity training for all staff, improve its staff induction process to address cultural issues, and regularly include cultural matters in staff and management meetings to ensure concerns could be raised and addressed.
* Name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual.
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