Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers to questions I asked the Minister for Women, Senator Gallagher, about measures to ensure women's health, safety and security.

Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 by the Gillard government in 2013 have created a legal minefield for our courts and gravely threaten rights that generations of Australian women have fought for. This highlights the critical importance of writing objective laws to ensure they are not so wildly open to interpretation. Legal definitions should not be subjective or ambiguous, or else Australians will be unable to conduct themselves with certainty that they are within the law.

As reported by the Australian newspaper last month, the danger of very subjective amendments to the STA has been highlighted by Sall Grover's appeal against a Federal Court judgement that she had indirectly discriminated against a trans woman. Janet Albrechtsen rightly asked: how can a person know about another person's sex or gender identity if the law plots an ambiguous scale? That's because the SDA doesn't define sex like it used to. It does attempt to define gender identity, but this definition is ridiculous:

… the gender-related identity, appearance or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of a person (whether by way of medical intervention or not), with or without regard to the person's designated sex at birth.

In Australia, it's apparent that a man can just identify as a woman and the SDA will recognise him as a woman. This is an appalling law that helps trans activists tread all over the rights that women have fought hard to achieve for decades. That's why One Nation aims to restore objective, biological definitions of women in the SDA to protect women's rights, safety, health and privacy.

Let me say this to the Labor Party, Greens and everyone: you protect women and quantify it when you are selecting your female candidates. You actually fight the pay gap. You fight domestic violence against women but not in sports changing rooms, safe spaces and toilets. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.