Our club takes all complaints about on and off-field behaviour seriously.
Our club will handle complaints based on the principles of procedural fairness, and ensure:
- all complaints will be taken seriously
- the person who is the subject of the complaint (the Respondent) will be given full details of what is being alleged against them and have the the opportunity to respond to those allegations
- irrelevant matters will not be taken into account
- decisions will be unbiased
- any penalties imposed will be reasonable.
More serious complaints may be escalated to Lacrosse Victoria.
If the complaint relates to suspected child abuse, sexual assault or other criminal cactivity, then our club may need to report the behaviour to the police and/or relevant government authority.
Complaint Handling Process
when a complaint is received by our Cub, the person receiving the complaint (e.g. President, or other Committee Member) will:
- listen carefully and ask questions to understand the nature and extent of the concern
- ask the complainant how they would like their concern to be resolved and if they need any support
- explain the different options available to help resolve the complainant’s concern
- inform the relevant government authorities and/or police, if required by law to do so
- where possible and appropriate, maintain confidentiality but not necessarily ananonymity.
Once the complainant decides on their preferred option for resolution, the Club will assist, where appropriate and necessary, with the resolution process.
This may involve:
- supporting the person complaining to talk to the person being complained about
- bringing all the people involved in the complaint together to talk objectively through the problem (this could include external mediation)
- gathering more information (e.g. from other people that may have seen the behaviour)
- seeking advice from our district, regional, state and/or national body, or from an external agency (e.g. State Department of Sport or anti-discrimination agency)
- referring the complaint to Lacrosse Victoria; and/or referring the complainant to an external agency such as a community mediation centre, police or anti-discrimination agency.
In situations where a complaint is referred to Lacrosse Victoria association and an investigation is conducted, the Club will:
- co-operate fully with the investigation
- where applicable, ensure the complainant is not placed in an unsupervised situation with the respondent(s)
- act on Lacrosse Victoria Association’s recommendations.
At any stage of the process, a person can seek advice from an anti-discrimination commission or other external agency and, if the matter is within their jurisdiction, may lodge a complaint with the anti-discrimination commission or other external agency.
