Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I attempted to introduce a bill to protect women's rights by amending the Sex Discrimination Act, by removing references to gender identity and restoring the act to its original purpose, which was to prevent discrimination on the basis of biological sex. That attempt was thwarted by Labor and the Greens, who opposed the bill's introduction. That's right: Labor and the Greens don't even want to discuss the issue of protecting women's spaces.

What that bill sought to do was to restore the Sex Discrimination Act to the position it was in in 2013, when there was a prescriptive definition of 'man' and 'woman', before the Gillard government introduced the concept of 'gender identity' into the act as a protected attribute. This change has had what, arguably, may have been unintended consequences, in creating a situation where the safety, privacy and opportunities of women are now threatened under the very law that was designed to protect them. But Labor and the Greens don't care.

Sex is not a social construct. It's a core biological reality that underpins human nature and the protections that this act was meant to provide. But, today, 'discrimination' on the basis of the concept of gender identity has become unlawful, placing Australians under legal threat for not affirming a concept that they may actually fundamentally disagree with. Now, if some of the people in this building actually cared about those who suffer from gender dysphoria, we'd be talking about this in a truthful manner. But that is not what happened today.

I want to take the opportunity, however, to thank the coalition, the opposition, for pushing the bill through for at least a second reading—they voted in favour of it—and also Senator Canavan, who co-sponsored the motion this morning. This battle is not over.