Sponsors

The Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission administers three pieces of legislation:

• The Equal Opportunity Act 1995;
• The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001; and
• The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.

The Commission's role is to:

• Help to resolve individual and representative complaints about discrimination, sexual harassment and racial and religious vilification by offering a conciliation process that is: confidential; impartial; free; simple
• Provide education about equality of opportunity, racial and religious tolerance and human rights
• Undertake projects and activities aimed at eliminating discrimination and racial and religious intolerance
• Conduct research and provide legal and policy advice
• Undertake specific functions in relation to the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, which include
• Providing an independent assessment of how well State and local Government comply with the Charter
• Investigating particular human rights issues and concerns

The Commission is not a tribunal or court. The Commission is an independent statutory body that reports to the Victorian Parliament through the State Attorney-General.

In the last decade, Australia Post has transformed its image, corporate culture and operations to emerge as one of Australia's most successful businesses. As well as providing a full range of letter and parcel services to all parts of the nation, Post's retail network serves over one million customers every day. Post is also increasing its business solution offering to include Internet fulfilment services, express delivery services, warehousing and logistics.
And to fulfil all of these functions, Australia Post relies on an extraordinarily dedicated and diverse workforce. Post is proud to reflect Australian society and to support the 2008 Diversity@Work Awards.

Victoria Police provides a 24-hour police service to the Victorian community, contributing to a high quality of life for individuals in the community by ensuring a safe and secure society. Employing more than 13,600 people, including police, public servants and protective security officers, Victoria Police values its diverse workforce.

Victoria Police seeks to actively promote and maintain harmonious relationships with Victoria's diverse community. Those relationships are based on mutual respect, tolerance and trust. Police work closely with different sectors of the community such as families, children, youth and multicultural communities to address particular issues. The programs and activities that focus on community and family issues are a very important part of police work. They help to ensure that people feel safe while going about their daily activities.

Victoria Police maintains a strong focus on multi-cultural communities, with the Multicultural Advisory Unit responsible for: Advising police on multicultural issues; Cross-cultural training for police members; and Providing information on the role of police to Victorians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The MAU is part of the Operations Department and works closely with other proactive areas of the Community and Cultural Division.

ANZ is a proud sponsor of the Diversity@work Awards 2006 and is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where employee differences are valued and leveraged, for individual, business and organizational success.

At ANZ we recognise the importance of diversity, it provides our organisation with rich talent, perspectives and experiences to draw upon to succeed in a global marketplace. By valuing difference each employee can bring their whole self to work, speak with openness and feel respected, which will enable them to make a valued contribution.

ANZ has again been recognised, in 2006, as an employer of choice for women. ANZ also recently made a public commitment to provide more employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians by joining the Corporate Leaders for Indigenous Employment Project (CLIEP).

Our suite of work/life balance policies is allowing employees to explore flexible working and leave arrangements and to meet dependent/caring responsibilities. Our increased levels of employee engagement have been attributed in part to the diversity initiatives we have undertaken.

We recognize that valuing the diversity of our employees is what helps us achieve and maintain business excellence. "The bottom line is that people make great companies." John McFarlane.

The Crown Entertainment Complex on Melbourne's South Bank is a leading Australian entertainment venue. Located on the southern bank of Melbourne's Yarra River, Crown offers a brilliant combination of unsurpassed luxury, relaxed style, warm service and non-stop excitement. Crown is Melbourne's premier entertainment venue offering something to meet every need and match every mood.

Crown is Victoria's single largest tourist destination, attracting more than 15 million visitors each year.

Crown is an Equal Opportunity Employer. As such Crown respects the diverse nature of its workforce and is committed to creating an environment within Crown in which equity and diversity are recognised as being essential to the high performance of the company and are incorporated into day to day business. We will demonstrate fairness and respect in our dealings with our colleagues, customers, shareholders, suppliers and the community.

The Herald Sun was established in 1990 as an amalgam of the afternoon daily, The Herald, and the morning daily, The Sun News-Pictorial. It sells more than 554,000 copies a day, reaching 1.5 million readers. On any given day, 45 per cent of the adult population of Victoria reads the newspaper and, in the course of a week, 75 per cent of Victorians will read at least one issue. The Herald Sun remains Australia's most popular daily newspaper, attracting 1,520,000 readers (May 2005) Monday to Friday and just on 1.6 million Victorians each Sunday (May 2005).

HWT's newspaper interests date back to the launch in 1840 of The Port Philip Herald, and the company over time developed into Australia's largest media organisation, with broad investment in newspapers, television, radio and magazines.

HWT plays an important role in the Victorian community as a sponsor or supporter of numerous events and causes. Since 1931 it has conducted the annual Good Friday Appeal that has raised more than $100 million for the Royal Children's Hospital.