Supreme Court of Victoria Court of Appeal

In the case of Austin Health v. Tsikos, the respondent claimed that she had been directly discriminated against in her employment based on her age and sex. She claimed she had been denied the opportunity to renegotiate her salary which was at the rate specified in the enterprise agreement, despite (among other things) being paid considerably less than a male employee who reported to her, who was classified at a lower grade under the enterprise agreement, but was paid well above the rates specified in the enterprise agreement.

This decision concerned the appeal by Christian Youth Camps (“CYC”) against the decision of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (“VCAT”) that CYC had unlawfully discriminated against Cobaw, an organisation concerned with youth suicide prevention.  CYC, the operator of a camping facility at Phillip Island, had been established by the Christian Brethren Church and was opposed to homosexual activity on religious grounds. Cobaw had sought to rent CYC’s camping resort for the purposes of a weekend camp to be attended by homosexual young people.

The respondent had previously been sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to six charges relating to sexually assaulting, stalking, and threatening to kill his ex-wife, as well as attempting to pervert the course of justice (saying that he would kill himself if the victim did not drop the charges against him), and violating a family-violence intervention order.

After pleading guilty to defensive homicide and being sentenced, the applicant appealed her sentence.  The applicant’s violent and abusive partner, Mr. Mifsud, had compelled the applicant to kill the victim, Mr. Nankervis, by threatening to kill her family unless she killed Mr. Nankervis.  The sentencing judge described the applicant’s offense as a “very grave example” of defensive homicide on the basis that Mr. Nankervis was innocent, Mr. Mifsud was absent at the time of the killing so the applicant could have gone to the police, and because the attack on Mr.

The applicant and his wife had been married for 24 years, but had been separated for approximately eight years at the time of the offense. The applicant was convicted of several charges, including aggravated burglary, breach of a family intervention order, making a threat to kill, and common assault.