Sport should be a place where you enjoy yourself, develop friendships and have fun. It’s not a place where you should be subjected to discrimination, harassment or abuse.  If this behaviour occurs, you have every right to make a complaint.

Most state sporting organisations have policies and procedures for dealing with complaints (e.g., Member Protection policy) which include the following options:

• trying to sort the matter out yourself;
• informal discussions with the other party;
• mediation;
• lodging a formal written complaint at the level the incident occurred;
• appealing to the next level if you believe the outcome was; biased, you have been denied natural justice or the process didn’t follow your sport’s procedures;
• referring or lodging a complaint with an external authority  (e.g. police, child protection or anti-discrimination agency).

Generally you have a choice in how you would like your complaint dealt with. In some cases though, the club may have a duty of care and be required to act, irrespective of how you would like the complaint handled (e.g. if a child is believed at risk of harm).

Check your sport’s policies or contact your club President or Member Protection Information Officer to find out about the options available to you.

This section provides general information about:

• Where to complain
• What to expect
• Where to get help