Protect Women and Children in NSW

In August 2023, Independent MP Alex Greenwich introduced his Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill and Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill into the NSW Parliament.

And they are the most anti-women, anti-children set of reforms we have seen introduced at one time.

'Equality' Reforms

The NSW Labor Government has prioritised debate on Greenwich's 'Equality Bill' during the first parliamentary sitting week of 2024, on the 8th of February. This is despite a lack of consultation with concerned women's and children's groups.

**Update: Debate on the ‘Equality Bill’ has been postponed and the bill has been 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.

And that’s just an overview of the anti-women, anti-children amendments contained in this Bill, much of which contains grave, far-reaching consequences, that cannot have been properly considered by its drafters.

Banning 'Conversion Practices' 

Then there’s Greenwich's Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill.

This Bill seeks to restrict, punish and/or criminalise medical professionals, parents and others who are trying to help those suffering with gender dysphoria in a way that doesn’t simply just affirm a person’s ‘gender identity’. This is particularly concerning for gender dysphoric children, of whom girls are grossly overrepresented.

The Bill ignores the mounting medical evidence against the ‘affirmation only’ approach to gender dysphoria, the phenomena that have given rise to the rapid increase in gender dysphoria, the harms resulting from medical transitioning, and the regrets of detransitioners (many of whom are women whose tragic experiences have culminated in lawsuits against medical professionals).

Rather than supporting Greenwich's Bill, the NSW Labor Government has promised to introduce its own version of this harmful legislation in early 2024 (see our submission on the Government’s consultation). Greenwich has confirmed he is working with the Government on the reforms.

**Update: On 13 March 2024, the NSW Government introduced its ‘Conversion Practices Ban Bill’, despite lack of consultation with key stakeholders.**

What makes it worse is that all these reforms are being promoted under the guise of ‘equality’ and child welfare.

SIGN NOW TO PROTECT WOMEN AND CHILDREN SIGN NOW TO PROTECT WOMEN
AND CHILDREN