Tasmania's Supreme Court will today hear an anti-discrimination case against the "Ladies Lounge" in Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art. The lounge excludes men, with MONA arguing it was an attempt to address historic injustices against women. But the museum lost the case and has now appealed.
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00:00About four years ago, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart decided to create a women's
00:07only ladies lounge.
00:09It's a small space with some ornate chairs, but men are prevented from entering.
00:14Mona says any discrimination experienced by men is simply a part of the artwork, and it
00:19was a comment on the historic exclusion of women.
00:21But one visitor last year, New South Wales man Jason Lau, filed an anti-discrimination
00:27complaint.
00:28It won in a Tasmanian tribunal, which found the discrimination experienced by Mr Lau would
00:33not promote equal opportunity for women, and in any case, the law doesn't allow for discrimination
00:39for good faith artistic purposes anyway.
00:42So Mona has appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the tribunal made a number of
00:47errors, including that the lounge wasn't just responding to past exclusion of women, but
00:52also to present day exclusion as well.
00:55That appeal will be heard today.
00:57And since the tribunal's decision, supposed Picasso paintings in the lounge were moved
01:02into a female toilet at Mona, before it was revealed that the Picassos were in fact fakes,
01:08which lounge designer Kirsha Keshela says she painted herself.
01:12Other previous exhibits in the lounge were also not genuine.
01:16The lounge itself remains closed, with a sign saying, closed for reform.