Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has pledged to rewrite the Sex Discrimination Act to enshrine a definition of biological sex, after the Federal Court doubled the damages paid to a transgender woman blocked from a “woman-only” app in a landmark discrimination case. Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
He described his vow to “protect single-sex spaces across Australian life” as a “common-sense” response to the highly charged debate over gender identity.
“We will define biological sex in the Act. Male or female. The sex you are born. And we will protect single-sex spaces across Australian life. This is not radical. It is common sense,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.
“Let me be clear about what this is not. This is not about targeting transgender Australians. Every protection they currently have remains. We are not removing a single protection from anyone. But we are recognising something that should never have been in doubt: biological sex is real, it matters, and women and girls deserve spaces where it is respected.”
The Federal Court on Friday dismissed an appeal from the creators of social media app Giggle, upholding a finding from 2024 that they had breached Commonwealth discrimination laws in blocking Roxanne Tickle from an app they described as a “safe space” for women.
Mr Taylor said rewriting sex discrimination laws to define biological sex as the one assigned at birth would be a “first-term priority” for any Coalition government, and vowed to “protect single-sex spaces across Australian life”.
His pledge came a day after One Nation’s Pauline Hanson said she would try to amend the Sex Discrimination Act to include biological definitions of women and men.
Mr Taylor, fresh from a budget reply speech that canvassed “the biggest migrations cuts in Australian history”, challenged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to weigh in on transgender rights, asking: “Does he believe women and girls deserve protections based on biological sex?”
Mr Albanese has been asked several times for the definition of a woman, and has replied “an adult female”.
FULL STORY
Taylor vows to rewrite sex discrimination laws after transgender discrimination ruling (By Michelle Griffin, SMH)
