Rental discrimination????

Recently there has been a wave of ads in New South Wales looking for renters but specifying a particular desired race or religion. "Asian Only" "Bangladeshi Muslim Couple" "Indian Only" One ad read: "ASAP! 1 asian girl to fill my space... until 20 Feb" A rental home was listed in Sydney as "for Pakistani OR Indian OR Bangladeshi Family Only". These ads do discriminate, but they are not unlawful due to some "loopholes" in the law. While landlords and real estate agents must follow anti-discrimination laws, someone who is occupying a home and looking for a housemate or flatmate are not subject to those laws. The Anti-Discrimination Act of 1977, Section 20(3), says the laws do not apply to people who provide "private" accommodation if they or a near relative already live on the premises. Tim Soutphommasane, Race Discrimination Commissioner, said that even though the ads may be "against the spirit of multiculturalism" (whatever that means), they do not break any laws. "Most of us would have friendships that cross ethnic and racial lines,” he said. “We should hope that people can be comfortable with having those from different backgrounds living under the same roof.Some people who posted such ads stated that while they were uncomfortable being under the same roof with someone who was not of the same ethnic origin, it was not their intent to be offensive. In other news, though not in Australia this is an interesting landlord-tenant case: Leah Bassett, a landlord in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, is suing her tenants for using the property to film hardcore pornography. She had rented the furnished home to someone who, it turned out, worked for Mile High Distribution, Inc., a Canadian adult film company. Apparently,

they treated the property poorly, including using just about every room in the house, all the furniture, and even "laundry room appliances" for filming adult videos. The tenants have vacated the premises, but in an unusual twist, Mrs Bassett is suing them for copyright violations. It seems the furnishings in the rental included some of Mrs Bassett's original artworks, which subsequently appeared in some of the company's films.