The team at Women’s Forum Australia hope our supporters had a restful break and a fantastic start to 2026.
In case you missed them, we've rounded up some key headlines from over the holiday period, in publication order:
1. ABC admits failure over gender clinic court ruling
The ABC has acknowledged it should have covered a landmark judgment in the Family Court last April, but has denied that its failure to do so constituted an editorial breach.
The concession comes in response to a letter of complaint to the national broadcaster by Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress (PAGD) after the ABC failed to report on the findings of high-profile case Re Devin in April 2025. In that case, Justice Strum prevented a 12-year-old boy from receiving so-called ‘gender-affirming’ treatment and removed him from his mother’s custody after determining that he did not have gender dysphoria. Instead, the Court found that the boy had been surrounded by ‘gender-affirming and external influences’.
Justice Strum also strongly criticised the Royal Children’s Hospital and its Head of Medicine, Dr Michelle Telfer, for disregarding evidence that did not support her bias towards gender-affirming care. He further found that the controversial RCH Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines (authored by Dr Telfer) did not ‘have the approval or the imprimatur of the Commonwealth or any State or Territory Government, including any such minister or Department of Health’, and criticised the guidelines for failing to recognise that children may not be capable of making life-altering medical decisions.
Women’s Forum Australia raised concerns at the time about the ABC’s decision to publish an opinion piece promoting puberty blockers as ‘safe’ and ‘reversible’ the day after the judgment became public. We also wrote to ABC Media Watch asking it to investigate why the story about the judge’s serious criticism of Dr Michelle Telfer had been ignored and whether editorial bias or advocacy interests were interfering in the public’s right to know.
The ABC has previously published favourable coverage of Dr Telfer and her work, and its failure to report on this significant legal development adds further weight to concerns about the influence of activist group ACON over the organisation and criticism that the broadcaster is biased in favour of trans-rights activism.
Read more by Rachel Baxendale in The Australian (archive version).
2. Royal Children’s Hospital gender clinic referrals fall as experts claim patients are being diverted
Experts are concerned that the Royal Children’s Hospital is outsourcing new patient referrals in a bid to downplay the number of children being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and to avoid mounting scrutiny of controversial medical gender interventions, particularly puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
The Australian reports that figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that while new patient referrals increased exponentially between 2012 and 2021, there was a sharp decline in 2024, despite a record number of patients being seen by the clinic.
The FOI data shows that new patient referrals jumped from 18 in 2012 to 821 in 2021, before dropping back to 290 in 2024. Despite this fall, a record 1,226 patients were treated by the gender clinic in 2024–2025, and 123 minors were prescribed cross-sex hormones during that period — more than double the 2021–2022 patient figures.
Read more by Rachel Baxendale in The Australian (archive version).
3. Northern Territory announces legislation to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide
The Country Liberal Party will introduce legislation to decriminalise euthanasia and assisted suicide in mid-2026, following an inquiry by the Territory Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee into Voluntary Assisted Dying in 2025.
While the Northern Territory was the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise voluntary euthanasia in 1995, those laws were overturned by the Howard Government, and it now remains the only Australian jurisdiction where euthanasia and assisted suicide are not permitted.
Details of the Bill are yet to be forthcoming.
Women’s Forum Australia opposes legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Northern Territory, recognising that such laws fail to protect vulnerable people and send a message that suicide can be a positive solution.
You can read our submission to the Northern Territory’s inquiry here.
Read more by Oliver Chaseling for the ABC.
4. Western Australia to introduce ‘conversion practices ban' legislation
Western Australia’s Attorney-General, Dr Tony Buti, has reportedly told Out in Perth that the Cook Labor Government will introduce legislation to ban so-called ‘conversion practices’ before the end of the year. This is the third time the government has announced its intention to introduce this legislation.
Conversion therapy has traditionally been associated with cruel physical and emotional ‘treatments’, including aversion therapy, shock therapy, lobotomies, castration, and drug treatments inflicted on people to change behaviours and tendencies, including same-sex attraction. However, in Australia the label ‘conversion practices’ has been used as a stalking horse by activists to legislate so-called ‘gender-affirming care’.
In other Australian jurisdictions, ‘conversion practices ban’ laws have had a devastating impact on parents and medical professionals treating children with gender distress, as they make it a criminal offence not to affirm a child’s perceived gender, putting them on a pathway towards harmful puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
Read more by Graeme Watson in Out in Perth.
5. Queensland Government faces new court challenge over extended puberty blocker ban
The LGBTI Legal Service has filed an application for judicial review in the Queensland Supreme Court on behalf of a trans-identifying minor to overturn the government’s decision to extend its ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for new patients in the public healthcare system until 2032, in line with clinical trials to be undertaken in the UK.
In October, the LGBTI Legal Service successfully overturned the government’s initial January ban on technical grounds rather than on the merits of the ban itself. However, Nicholls reinstated the ban hours after the judgment was released.
In his announcement of the extension in December 2025, Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the independent review undertaken by Dr Ruth Vine in 2025 found the evidence supporting the use and safety of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to be lacking.
The LGBTI Legal Service is also arguing in separate proceedings that minors who began treatment in the private healthcare system between the initial ban in January and the renewed ban in October should be moved across to the public healthcare system, as they are no longer ‘new patients’.
Read more by Mikaela Mulveney in the Courier Mail (archive version).
6. Western Australia gender clinic allows double mastectomies for teenage girls, according to secret document
A document reluctantly tabled in Parliament by WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat, following months of pressure from Australian Christian MP Maryka Groenewald, reveals that Perth Children’s Hospital gender clinic is prescribing puberty blockers to ‘very young’ minors, and will also facilitate teenage girls under 18 struggling with gender dysphoria to undergo double mastectomies. There is limited data available on how many minors have undergone the procedure in Australia.
The gender clinic’s model of care document states that it does not offer “extended or intensive counselling or psychotherapy”, nor does it formally diagnose neurodiverse conditions such as autism or ADHD, and emphasises that personal responsibility for the decision lies with the girl and her parents.
The former Chief Medical Officer for Western Australia and former chair of the Australian Medical Association, Gary Geelhoed, described the revelations as “unethical”, telling The Australian that while children cannot vote or drive, they are able to consent to lifelong medications and mutilating surgery.
WA Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam called for an urgent review and suspension of the current model of care, which she said was “harmful and outdated”.
Read more by Bernard Lane in The Australian (archive version).
7. Australia responds to Grok's sexualised deepfakes
Social media platform X’s AI tool, Grok, has drawn global scrutiny after reports emerged that it was being used to produce sexualised fake images of women and children.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the generation of such images as "abhorrent" and Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says she has written to X seeking further information about the safeguards in place to prevent Grok’s misuse and how the platform complies with its regulatory obligations.
X said in a statement that it "take[s] action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”
Elon Musk has since limited the feature to paid subscribers, making it easier to identify those producing illegal content, and has introduced stricter moderation for image creation, which will "prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis."
Malaysia and Indonesia have now blocked access to Grok over explicit deepfakes, while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has threatened to block access to X altogether.
Australia is no stranger to the production of sexualised deepfake images, with teachers and female students having been targeted in schools. Such content is gravely harmful and must be prevented and punished regardless of where it is getting made and published. However, at this point, there is no evidence the government is investigating other platforms producing similar content, raising questions about whether its response has been opportunistic. The issue also raises broader questions around the influence of AI in our culture.
Read more in Reuters.
2025 was a massive year for Women’s Forum Australia, and 2026 is set to be even bigger.
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The year ahead will include several significant court matters, including: the long-awaited judgment in Sall Grover's case Giggle v Tickle; detransitioner Mel Jefferies’ case against two doctors and the Monash Gender Clinic, following the serious and permanent harm she lives with after a double mastectomy and cross-sex hormones; and the vilification claim against Jasmine Sussex for stating that men cannot breastfeed.
There will also be two state elections this year, with South Australia going to the polls in March and Victoria in November.
Women’s Forum Australia is an independent think tank that undertakes research, education and public policy advocacy on issues affecting women and girls, with a particular focus on addressing behaviours and practices that are harmful and abusive to them. We are a non-partisan, non-religious, tax-deductible charity. We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations to make an impact. Support our work today.
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