By Rachael Wong
New South Wales Parliamentarians, predominantly independent MP Alex Greenwich followed by his merry band of Labor and Greens MPs, have succeeded in erasing women’s rights and protections in NSW and beyond.
Last night, Greenwich’s harmful Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2024 passed the Legislative Council 15-12, after passing the Legislative Assembly the previous day, 50-30. SEE HOW MPS VOTED.
It is hard to say what’s worse: the Bill’s egregious content, or the appalling process surrounding it.
Substance of the Bill
The Bill introduces:
Sex self-ID, whereby anyone can change their legal sex on their birth certificate, allowing men to self-identify as women and gain unfettered access to female-only spaces, services and sports. This includes vulnerable children who will now be able to self-identity as the opposite sex (or any ‘sex descriptor’) and concretise a transgender identity in law, encouraging them further down a process of ‘social transitioning’, towards the track of harmful and irreversible ‘medical transitioning’
Penalties and restrictions for ‘outing’ or ‘threatening to out a person’ by disclosing their ‘gender history’ (i.e. their biological sex), which will be used to attack those speaking out about biological reality and women’s sex-based rights.
Reduced safeguards for prostituted women, whereby it will no longer be a crime to live off the earnings of prostitution of another person, opening up already vulnerable women to be pimped out by abusive family members and others.
Reforms facilitating parentage orders for those who illegally engage in overseas commercial surrogacy, legitimising the practice and encouraging the exploitation and commodification of vulnerable women – particularly those from poor countries and disadvantaged backgrounds – as wombs for rent and children as products for sale. This is despite the review of the Surrogacy Act currently being undertaken by the NSW Government.
Process surrounding the Bill
The process surrounding the Bill has been disgraceful from start to finish, but I will focus specifically on what happened this week.
Having introduced the Bill 14 months ago, back in August 2023, Greenwich suddenly produced an amended Bill to MPs late on Saturday night. Labor was apparently provided with further amendments on Monday and Tuesday, but the Opposition (who had taken a party position against the Bill) and the public did not see these amendments until they were put up on the parliamentary website at 12.15pm on Wednesday – less than one hour before the Bill was to be debated in the Legislative Assembly. These amendments made substantial changes to the already substantial changes sent to MPs on Saturday night. To make things worse, notice that the Bill was going to be debated on Wednesday was not given to the Opposition until 9.30am that morning, which the Government allowed to happen during Government business, rather than on the usual private members’ bills day, which would have been Thursday.
Shadow Attorney-General Alister Henskens called the process “appalling”, saying “It is not just the height of disrespect for the Opposition and parliamentary process; it is the height of disrespect for the community.”
So rushed and underhanded was the process surrounding the Bill this week, that even Greens MP and ardent trans activist Jenny Leong said that she too had only heard the morning of that the Bill would be debated that day. She noted that “this is not good democracy” and that “the crossbench has been completely left out of the loop”.
Disregard for the community
This flagrant disregard for transparency, proper process and democracy in ramming these harmful and regressive reforms through the NSW Parliament is consistent with NSW Premier Chris Minns’ and his Labor Government’s disregard for the NSW community’s overwhelming opposition to the Bill. Women’s Forum Australia supporters signed a petition with over 30,000 signatures calling on Parliament to reject the Bill, and over 25,000 NSW residents signed an official parliamentary petition asking it to do the same. In parliament’s own survey on the Bill, 85% of the 13,000 respondents were opposed to it.
Such disregard – or even disdain – for the many in the community who opposed the Bill, was further demonstrated in MP’s speeches which accused those with concerns about the harm to women and children as “fear mongering” and “transphobic”. Such MPs – notably members of Labor (including Minister for Women Jodie Harrison), members of the Greens, as well as Liberal MP Felicity Wilson and Independent Greg Piper – spent their time levelling personal attacks, rather than substantively addressing any of the very real concerns with the Bill, in particular the impact on the safety and rights of women and children. Greens MP Jenny Leong wore a shirt that read, “NO TERFS ON OUR TURF”, TERF being a slur used to denigrate women who support women’s sex-based rights, and which is associated with calls for, and actual violence against, women.
Silver lining
While the removal of protections for women and children in this legislation is both shameful and alarming, there is a silver lining in what has been a very dark week.
The final Bill is less bad than it could have been if not for all the community pushback and efforts by advocates and MPs across parliament. The original Bill had 62 pages and many more harmful amendments to many more pieces of legislation, whereas the final bill passed by both Houses had been whittled down to 21 pages.
Amendments removed include:
- All amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act
- Amendments allowing children to change their legal sex without either parents’ consent or knowledge
- Amendments to allow children under 16 to consent to medical treatment without parental consent
- Amendments enabling men who identify as women to demand they are searched by female officers
- Amendments to make all references to sex-based language in NSW laws gender neutral
- Amendments to decriminalise: coercing a person to engage in prostitution; advertising to engage someone in prostitution; and buying or selling sex near schools, churches or hospitals
- Amendments that would have fully decriminalised overseas commercial surrogacy
If you read Women's Forum Australia's submission highlighting our concerns with the original Bill, it is clear how much worse the legislation could have been.
Thank you
On that note, I want to thank members of the NSW community who wrote emails, responded to the parliamentary survey, made phone calls, signed petitions and did all you could to alert your local members and the Government about your serious concerns regarding the Bill.
I want to thank the advocates from Left to Right and of all backgrounds and beliefs who made submissions, appeared at the parliamentary hearing, lobbied and educated MPs, and worked tirelessly to help inform the community of the dangers of this harmful Bill.
And finally, I want to thank all the MPs who, both publicly and behind the scenes, listened to our concerns, and who worked to highlight them, both with your colleagues and in your speeches this week. Special thanks to Lower House MPs, Liberals Alister Henskens, Ray Williams and Tanya Davies, as well as Upper House MPs, Liberals Susan Carter and Rachel Merton, as well as Libertarian John Ruddick and Independent Rod Roberts for their excellent speeches defending women and children and standing up against this dreadful law. Most of the MPs who spoke against the Bill substantively referenced the work of Women’s Forum Australia, including our submission, legislative analysis, letters, and articles, and I am so grateful that despite the result, you have put on the record the grave harms of this legislation.
We will not forget
To those who supported the Bill and ignored its harms to women, children and the entire NSW community, the people of NSW will not forget.
Rachael Wong is the CEO of Women's Forum Australia
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.
| I’ll stand with women ▷ |