The NSW Parliament is set to debate some of the most anti-women, anti-children reforms we have seen.
Every person deserves respect, equality, and care under our laws, but the reforms in Independent MP Alex Greenwich's Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023 are counterproductive to those principles. At best, the reforms elevate the rights of some groups over others. At worst, they are to the detriment of all, including those they are meant to help.
So please sign this petition to Members of the NSW Parliament, calling on them to reject this harmful Bill.
Learn more about the anti-women, anti-children reforms in Alex Greenwich's "Equality" Bill.
In August 2023, Independent MP Alex Greenwich introduced his Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill into the NSW Parliament.
It includes some of the most anti-women, anti-children reforms we have seen introduced at one time.
The NSW Labor Government initially prioritised debate on Greenwich's "Equality" Bill during the first parliamentary sitting week of 2024, on the 8th of February. This was despite a lack of consultation with concerned women's and children's groups.
However, on 13 March 2024, after significant public backlash, debate on the "Equality" Bill was postponed and the bill was referred to Committee for inquiry and report by 3 June 2024.
The Bill includes:
The introduction of sex self-ID, which will allow anyone to change their legal sex and be treated as that sex for all intents and purposes under law. This includes children, in some cases, without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Under the Bill there will be no more single-sex spaces, sports, schools, or even sex-specific language. Men will be able to legally identify as women and access female-only spaces including bathrooms, changing rooms, refuges, and prisons. We have already seen the upshot of self-ID overseas and in other states, where women and girls have been sexually assaulted in what should be female-only spaces. Those who refuse to recognise a person’s self-identified sex will risk falling foul of anti-discrimination laws.
Further liberalised prostitution, which will remove protections for prostituted persons (the majority of whom are women), as well as for the wider community. For example, the use of coercive conduct or undue influence to induce or cause a person to engage in prostitution will no longer be an offence. Advertising for prostitution or buying sex near homes, schools, churches, hospitals, or public places will no longer be restricted. This all despite the fact that deregulated prostitution has been shown to harm, rather than help, women, and that progressive countries are trying to combat, rather than foster, this abhorrent form of sexual exploitation and violent commodification of women’s bodies.
Removing bans on commercial surrogacy if it takes place outside NSW, which will legalise commercial surrogacy undertaken by NSW residents overseas, encouraging the exploitation and commodification of vulnerable women as wombs for rent and children as products for sale. The Bill attempts to circumvent the federal ban on commercial surrogacy within Australia, and the Federal Parliament’s finding that “even with the best of regulatory intentions, there is still significant potential for the exploitation of surrogates and children to occur.” This modern-day form of human trafficking is condemned globally by women’s, children’s, and human rights defenders, as an affront to the human rights and dignity of women and children.
What makes it worse is that all these reforms are being promoted under the guise of ‘equality’ and child welfare.
AND CHILDREN