Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Stronger Families and Stronger Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sall Grover, an Australian entrepreneur, created Giggle, a women-only app, to give women a safe space free from online harassment from men. When a biological man sought to join, she said no. For that, she has spent four years and nearly $2 million in court. Her case is now before the Federal Court, not only for herself, but for every woman and girl who believes women deserve spaces of their own. This is not just about women. It is about any group with legitimate criteria for membership—a prostate cancer support group for men, a children's club for kids or a miscarriage support group for women. Each exists for a reason, and that reason collapses if membership can be claimed by anyone at will. Men cannot have miscarriages, women cannot get prostate cancer, and adults certainly can't be children. Yet our sex discrimination commissioner, Dr Anna Cody, paid $400,000 a year, recently told Senate estimates she did not understand the term 'biological man'. How can the nation's top official for women's rights not grasp basic biology? If she cannot define a woman, how can she defend one? I call on this government to sack Dr Cody immediately.

Since 2013, gender identity has overridden sex in the law. The result is the erasure of women's rights, and parliament must act to restore clarity to protect single-sex spaces, services and opportunities as lawful and necessary. This is not intolerance; it is reality and it is fairness. Without sex based rights, we cannot protect women. Gender identity must never override biological sex.