My Trans Flip, or how I went from foggy brained to clear-eyed on gender ideology | Clive Hamilton

A few years ago, I wrote a history of the struggle for gay and lesbian rights in a volume for the National Library of Australia. The tone was celebratory, reflecting the spirit of the times.

When the issue of trans rights emerged, slowly at first then exploding in the late 2010s, I saw it as a natural evolution of the gay and lesbian rights movement. It made sense to add the T to LGB to recognise another marginalised group that had found its voice. I had known a couple of older transwomen; of course they deserved respect and freedom from discrimination.

Like most, I was hazy about what transsexuality and transgender really meant and the way in which the idea of gender had been adopted from feminism and reinterpreted, in fact, turned upside down.

Even so, in the early 2020s I became disturbed by the growing intolerance of any non-conforming view. The brutal treatment by her peers of Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor at my alma mater, the University of Sussex, shocked me. But I kept the dispute at arm’s length. To be honest, I was afraid of doing something that might earn the wrath of the activists and make me a target.

I’m not usually afraid to go where left-wing angels fear to tread—I’d been the target of vicious zealotry in the past—but I was too uncertain of my ground. Developing a coherent position on the trans issue would require work, and there were other matters occupying me.

However, my irritation with transactivist bullying escalated as more and more cases emerged of reasonable people being vilified, threatened, cancelled and fired simply for taking an alternative view to that of the hard-liners. I was mystified by the vehemence of the attacks on J.K. Rowling simply for arguing that, while they deserve respect, transwomen are not women and single-sex spaces are sometimes justified. You may disagree with her, but what she was saying seemed perfectly defensible from a feminist standpoint.

The righteous burning of Harry Potter books, as if they had become contaminated, had historical parallels and signalled to me the cultural triumph of the evangelical left.

Source: My Trans Flip, or how I went from foggy brained to clear-eyed on gender ideology

Federal courts knew Australian data was sent to India more than a decade ago but took no action, emails reveal – ABC News

Sensitive Australian court data was accessed in India more than a decade ago, newly surfaced emails have revealed, but the court took no action and years later the offshoring re-occurred.

Concerns were raised with both federal courts and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) by former Auscript national manager, Paul Cutbush, in December 2014, but the court deemed it was not a serious contravention.

Auscript was responsible for transcription services at both courts when the data breach was first raised. 

At the time, the family court said Auscript’s failure to notify the court about offshoring data was a “technical, minor and inconsequential breach and not one which, when disclosed, would warrant any significant action by the court”.

Earlier this year, embattled court transcription company VIQ Solutions, which took over from Auscript, breached its Commonwealth contract after allowing highly sensitive court files to be accessed in India.

Shortly after the ABC reported the data breach, VIQ was put into liquidation and shut down following calls for a forensic audit as well as fears of a potential risk to national security.

Mr Cutbush said the most recent data breach was a “slap in the face” after his concerns were ignored in 2014.

“You can’t get much more sensitive from a security point of view. I don’t think the expectation of family court users, when they go with sensitive matters to the family court, is that that transcript would be shipped off to a small, chartered accountant in a location in India without the court knowing,” he said.

“There has to be accountability.”

Source: Federal courts knew Australian data was sent to India more than a decade ago but took no action, emails reveal – ABC News

Minister for Sport Anika Wells, National Press Club, 15 Oct 26 – YouTube

Women’s Liberation Now! at Pozible – Pozible

A new book edited by Alva C Geikie and Deborah Shnookal that will be published for International Women’s Day 2027. Click play to see Alva speak about the book.

Source: Women’s Liberation Now! at Pozible – Pozible

Ecofibre research into use of cannabis to treat ovarian cancer or endometriosis terminated for misconduct | Examine | SMH

A 2021 announcement trumpeted the results as “groundbreaking”. The research partners – the University of Newcastle and ASX-listed hemp grower Ecofibre – seemed convinced they were poised to transform women’s health.

Almost five years to the day, the picture is rather different.Fair Work Commission documents reveal the University of Newcastle researcher who led the work has now been terminated for research misconduct. The research centre he directed has shut, with all samples and data from the suspect research destroyed. Staff have lost their jobs, and PhD students have had to abandon their studies. The university has had to repay donors.

Source: Examine

The Conversation: When abortion and surrogacy law collide, contracts can’t answer the hardest questions – UVA Research News

A Texas surrogacy dispute involving McKenna West, who refused to abort a fetus diagnosed with a heart condition against intended parents’ wishes, highlights how post-Dobbs abortion laws complicate surrogacy contracts. Legal scholars at UVA and GWU examine how fetal-personhood arguments, state-by-state legal patchworks, and bodily autonomy clash, leaving unresolved questions about enforceability and whose interests surrogacy law ultimately protects.

Source: The Conversation: When abortion and surrogacy law collide, contracts can’t answer the hardest questions – UVA Research News

US: Man Who Brutally Murdered Female Hiker Blames ‘Gender Identity’ Struggles, Avoids Death Penalty | Genevieve Gluck

An Arizona man who fatally stabbed a woman 15 times and blamed his “gender identity and sexuality” for the brutal slaying has now avoided the death penalty.

Source: US: Man Who Brutally Murdered Female Hiker Blames ‘Gender Identity’ Struggles, Avoids Death Penalty

I was a surrogate mother for a wealthy gay couple: They left me penniless, abandoned me with C-section wounds in the street and literally ran away with my baby | Daily Mail Online

Now, several years after giving birth to a baby boy named Piero, Belén speaks to me from her home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, about her heartbreaking experience as a surrogate and why she is now campaigning to make the practice illegal.

Source: I was a surrogate mother for a wealthy gay couple: They left me penniless, abandoned me with C-section wounds in the street and literally ran away with my baby | Daily Mail Online

Why domestic and family violence offenders often aren’t known to police – ABC News

Despite improvements in recent years, under-reporting of domestic violence is still rife.

The 2021-23 Domestic Violence Death Review found half the men who killed a female partner had a history of using DV that had never been reported to police.

The NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team, which analysed more than 20 years of domestic violence homicides in a report tabled in parliament in 2024, found two in three women killed were killed by an ex-partner or at the point of separating from their partner.

The same report found three-quarters of the men who killed a female partner had used three or more different types of domestic violence against her during the relationship, behaviour that is often controlling rather than physical.

The report found nearly half the victims (47 per cent) had a prior history of domestic violence recorded by police, and 31 per cent had previously experienced domestic violence involving the same alleged offender.

[Ed: Perhaps they should start believing women who report abuse instead of misidentifying them as perpetrators and torturing them further through the Family Court system. Then more women might report to the authorities. Just a thought . . .]

Source: Why domestic and family violence offenders often aren’t known to police – ABC News

Qld police to get new powers over DV matters involving other cops | The Courier Mail

Queensland police will be given discretionary powers when attending domestic and family violence matters involving other officers under new laws, but the government says safeguards will exist to prevent conflict of interest.

Under the new laws, police will be able to issue on-the-spot directions to other police involved in domestic and family violence matters, which will stay in place for three years and can come with a range of conditions.

It will mean police can issue police protection directions to other police, instead of the existing police protection notices that require a person to attend court and receive a domestic violence order from a magistrate.

Currently, police subject to a domestic violence order or direction must surrender their weapon and report to their officer in charge.

A misconduct report is also filed and the matter internally reviewed by police.

CCC data shows 498 complaints about police response to DV were made in the 2025-26 financial year, and 63 complaints were made regarding police perpetrated DV.

The CCC declined to say whether the proposed laws risked a power imbalance or if the safeguards outlined by the government were sufficient.

[Ed: This means the normal DV laws won’t apply to Queensland police officers. There is a problem with high numbers of Queensland police perpetrating DV so they have dealt with it by removing the consequences and replaced it with something more like a parking ticket that does not require them to attend court.]

Source: Qld police to get new powers over DV matters involving other cops | The Courier Mail