Neighbour yelled 'black mongrel' to woman across the street

July 2021

Rhonda* is an Aboriginal woman. She has been having a dispute with one of her neighbours for many years. 

Her neighbour often complains about Rhonda’s yard and where she parks her car. On several occasions, Rhonda heard her neighbour yell out to her on the street and verbally abuse her. The abuse included calling her a black bastard, black mongrel and telling her she was not welcome in the neighbourhood and should ‘go back to live with the other black mongrels’. 

Rhonda lodged a complaint with ADNSW. 

At the conciliation conference, the neighbour said he had not verbally abused Rhonda but acknowledged that there had been an ongoing dispute between the two of them. The complaint was resolved when the neighbour provided a written assurance to Rhonda that he would not verbally abuse her or damage her property in the future. 

Note: If a party to a written conciliation agreement is of the opinion that a breach of the agreement has occurred, that party can within six months of the date of the agreement apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal for the agreement to be registered. If the Tribunal agrees that the provisions of the agreement could have been the subject of an order of the Tribunal and that a breach has occurred, it can register the agreement which can then be enforced as an order of the Tribunal.

*Name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual