With a federal election just months away, a top priority of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is to push the federal government, whoever it might be, to have a clear definition of a woman re-inserted into the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA).
The ACL’s NSW Director Joshua Rowe told Vision Radio: “This act is particularly responsible for actually protecting women against discrimination.”
“But the problem is that in 2013 [during the Gillard Labor government], direct reference to male and female was actually removed from this particular act.”
“How can you protect women if you can’t even define what a woman is?”
“And so for us, one of our big calls at the federal election is: Let’s get a clear biological definition of women within this particular act, so that we’re actually protecting the group of people within our community that the legislation was originally intended to protect.”
He stressed that it was vital that Australian laws are absolutely clear about biological sex.
“That is specifically in relation to this issue of the importance of being explicit about what biological sex is. So XX chromosomes for women, XY for men and a clear differentiation that we see in the physical capacities of the two sexes of a binary nature, male and female.”
“That is something that is very important to be defined in law, even when it just comes to someone’s legal culpability.”
“For example, when a biological man abuses a woman in a woman’s space, we need to know legally that that person was actually a male.”
Mr. Rowe said a clear definition could end the legal confusion over the issue.
There are fresh concerns over protections for women in Victoria’s proposed new anti-hate speech laws in the Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) bill which was introduced to Parliament this week.
It extends current protected attributes to disability, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation to the alarm of Christians, civil liberties advocates and women’s groups.
Bronwyn Winter from Australian Feminists for Women’s Rights welcomed the inclusion of sex as a protected attribute to give women and girls legal recourse against sexualised vilification.
But she warned women could themselves be at risk of being criminalised if they defended sex-based rights at the expense of trans rights.
Women’s Rights Network Australia was more direct in its submission to the state government about the law changes: “We believe that if this bill passes, it will be weaponised by trans activists against women.”
Christian women’s rights advocate and founder of Binary Australia Kirralie Smith has faced multiple hearings for ‘vilification’ after identifying and objecting to males playing in female football leagues.
She writes: “There are serious concerns surrounding the Victorian laws, as lies are being legislated and we all face threats of legal action for merely stating the biological fact that humans can’t change sex”
A legal definition of a woman could have changed the outcome of the landmark Giggle v. Tickle case.
Women’s-only app Giggle for Girls and its founder Sall Grover have appealed a court ruling that they had unlawfully discriminated against transgender plaintiff Roxanne Tickle.
It was the first gender identity discrimination case to reach the federal court.
Roxanne Tickle was barred from using the Giggle app in 2021 “because she did not look sufficiently female”.
The basis for the decision was that “on its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable”.
The Guardian reported Ms. Grover argued the ruling erred in its interpretation of sex under the Sex Discrimination Act; did not recognise that the Giggle app fostered equality between women and men; and had not considered critical evidence.
She claimed the judge “misinterpreted the fundamental rights of women and girls and the principles of single-sex spaces essential for their safety and dignity”.
“This case underscores a critical conversation about gender identity and the necessity of protecting the rights of both sexes in our society,” she asserted.
