Commonwealth of Australia Gazette · 02 Sep 2026 · 2 vistas
Mary's House wins five-year exemption to hire women only
Por FactBox Admin
The Australian Human Rights Commission has granted Mary’s House Services Ltd (MHS) a five-year temporary exemption to advertise for and employ only women, allowing the Sydney-based refuge to keep a female-only, trauma-informed space for women and children escaping domestic and family violence. The decision, signed by Commission President Hugh de Kretser in August 2026, was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 2 September 2026 under reference C2026G00585.
The exemption was granted under section 44(1) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (SDA), which empowers the Commission to exempt conduct from the Act’s prohibitions for a period not exceeding five years. It was issued alongside two related exemptions to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA) and Thirrili Ltd, which the Commission dealt with jointly because of the similar issues raised.
Scope of the exemption
The exemption covers both client-facing and non-casework roles at MHS:
- Domestic and Family Violence Specialist Caseworkers
- Refuge and Casework Managers
- Community Engagement Coordinator
- Philanthropy and Communications Manager
- Finance Coordinator
- Corporate Services Manager
The Commission extended the exemption to non-casework roles because MHS’s head office is colocated on the same floor as its Community Programs Centre, where clients attend to see caseworkers, and because non-casework staff may occasionally need to attend the refuge, which provides crisis accommodation to four families at a time at an undisclosed location. MHS currently has no male non-casework team members.
Trauma-informed rationale
MHS provides immediate critical care, safety and shelter for women and their children, and offers no services to men. The organisation argued that because it follows trauma-informed practices, its clients find the presence of men triggering, and that a male voice answering the administration phone could deter women from continuing a call to a domestic and family violence service.
The Commission accepted that the combination of these operational factors justified the exemption, noting the vulnerabilities of MHS’s clients, the nature of the trauma they have suffered, and the impact on their right to security of person. It drew on earlier exemptions granted to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service (FVPLS).
Consultation and support
The Commission ran a two-week public consultation and received five submissions, all from organisations and all in favour of granting the exemptions. Support for MHS’s application came from Full Stop Australia, whose CEO Karen Bevan wrote on 3 March 2026, and from Anti-Discrimination NSW, which wrote on 12 March 2026. The ACT Human Rights Commission and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission declined to make submissions on the MHS application.
The exemption means that, for five years, MHS’s hiring of women only in the specified roles cannot be the subject of a successful complaint under the SDA. For readers, the decision underscores how the federal anti-discrimination framework can accommodate gender-specific staffing where it is necessary to protect vulnerable clients and preserve the safety and effectiveness of services for women fleeing violence.
Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Government Notices, 2 September 2026 (official reference: C2026G00585).