Category: Australia

Australia’s ‘What Is a Woman?’ Case: Tickle v Giggle | Reality’s Last Stand| Rachael Wong

A judge of the Federal Court of Australia is currently deliberating on Australia’s “what is a woman?” case: Tickle v Giggle. This is a pivotal moment for women’s rights in Australia as it will determine whether gender identity trumps biological sex under Australian sex discrimination law.

The case centers on a complaint made by a trans-identified male (i.e. a man who identifies as a woman, also known as a “transwoman”), Roxanne Tickle, against the women-only social networking app, Giggle for Girls. Tickle alleges that his exclusion from the app, which was created exclusively for women by its founder and CEO, Sall Grover, constitutes gender identity discrimination under Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (SDA).

The case was heard in Sydney, Australia, from April 9 to 11, 2024, and the parties are currently awaiting the judge’s decision as of the publication date of this article.

On the first day of the three-day hearing, the presiding judicial officer, Bromwich J, stated that he would be interpreting and applying the law as it exists instead of what it should be.

This may ultimately require having to accept the arguments put forward by Tickle and the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner that gender identity trumps biological sex. This would mean that biological males identifying as women could not be denied access to female-only spaces. While absurd and irrational on its face, this decision would nevertheless align with the current version of the SDA.

It is likely that any judgment in favor of Tickle will be appealed to Australia’s High Court. This appeal would likely be based on a Constitutional argument that the Australian government overstepped its authority with the 2013 amendments to the SDA by exceeding the scope of CEDAW.

However, the simplest solution for the Australian government to address the current legislative uncertainty would be to repeal the 2013 amendments to the SDA and restore sex-based rights for women in Australia. Removing gender identity as a basis for discrimination in the SDA is not an act of “transphobia,” nor is it intended to harm or erase transgender individuals, as many activists assert. Rather, it is about about reinstating vital sex-based protections for women, acknowledging the immutable biological differences between males and females, and the inequalities stemming from those differences.

Source: Australia’s ‘What Is a Woman?’ Case: Tickle v Giggle

How child support works for me survey | Single Mother Families Australia

GET INVOLVED IN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH ON 

EXPERIENCES OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD SUPPORT SYSTEM

We are conducting a survey of single mothers’ and parents’ experiences of applying for and receiving child support, and how this has been affected by Government benefits and taxation systems.

Your involvement in the research will help to identify experiences of financial safety and how government policies and programs help or hinder financial safety.

We are looking for single mothers and parents who have interacted with the Australian Child Support System.

If you agree to take part in this research, please click through to this short online survey. It should take about 30 minutes to complete.

https://swinuw.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ebcWdEvZboNSd2m

The information you give will be completely anonymous, meaning it cannot be traced back to you. Your name will not be linked to anything you say as it will only be your responses to the questions which are used in the research.

If you would like more information about the survey, please contact Kay Cook at kcook@swin.edu.au

THANK YOU!

Source: Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

Think hard – by Bernard Lane – Gender Clinic News

British paediatrician Hilary Cass has a warning for distressed girls considering testosterone: taking this powerful hormone will make it hard—in some ways harder than mastectomy—to pass as a woman if they end up regretting medicalised gender change.

Although gender clinics claim there is little treatment regret, the Cass report says: “The percentage of [young] people treated with hormones who subsequently detransition remains unknown due to the lack of long-term follow-up studies, although there is suggestion that numbers are increasing.”

Given the risks and unknowns, the report urges “an extremely cautious clinical approach” to any cross-sex hormone provision at age 16, when this intervention becomes available under some treatment guidelines. In Australia, younger girls are put on testosterone, which is meant to be taken lifelong.

The recording of the July 2 Cass webinar, hosted by Australia’s National Association of Practising Psychiatrists, is here.

At the Australian webinar, picking up a key theme of her report, Dr Cass stressed how important it was for transgender identifying youth—girls dominate the mostly teenage caseload of gender clinics—to keep their options open as long as possible during a period of development and change.

“I was speaking to a gay friend who said, ‘We’re not hung up on this. We present however we want to present in a more masculine, androgynous or feminine way. And we feel that we have more flexibility than some of the binary trans community where there’s real pressure to conform to an idealised male or female appearance’.”

Source: Think hard – by Bernard Lane – Gender Clinic News

Sydney businessman charged with sex crimes against 10 women in case ‘unlike any other’| SMH

A self-proclaimed “humanist venture capitalist” from Sydney’s north has been charged with dozens of rapes and sex crimes against 10 women after he allegedly paid for sex acts using bad cheques.

The case, which can only be revealed after this masthead won a legal bid over court officials who had blocked the release of public documents, will be a major test of “new territory” in NSW consent laws.

Court documents allege Mark Sarian, 35, sexually abused the women at Mascot, Rose Bay and in central Sydney between February and June.

Sarian allegedly organised to have sex with the women, sometimes two at a time and sometimes asking them to urinate on him, before giving them the worthless cheques.

Angla’s investigator, Detective Amy O’Neill, charged Sarian with 32 counts of sexual intercourse without consent, three counts of carrying out a sexual act without consent and two counts of sexual touching without consent.

The number of alleged victims and charges would make Sarian one of the most prolific rapists in Sydney if the charges are proven at trial – but legal minds are watching closely because the case will be a major test of new consent laws.

One of the lesser-known changes, “fraudulent inducement”, protects sex workers from clients who deceitfully promise money but then hand over an empty envelope or a dud cheque.

Magistrate Daniel Covington said he had never seen a matter like it.

“If [this new law] did not exist, the prosecution case would be problematic, to say the least, but the presence of that law clearly affects and increases the strength of the case,” Covington said.

Since his arrest, Sarian has been held on remand in prison and has not entered a plea.

His heavily pregnant wife watched from the public gallery.

The Downing Centre Local Court registrar had blocked the release of the documents last week because they contained details of serious sexual offences.

It is illegal to publish the names and identities of alleged victims of sexual crimes, and journalists can be prosecuted for breaching the law.

It is not illegal to release court documents to journalists, though the Downing Centre has a longstanding policy of refusing to release them.

But, as Covington noted, it is “consistent with open justice” for journalists to view court documents, and it’s neither unusual nor controversial for them to be released.

This masthead’s executive counsel, Larina Alick, told the court that Sarian’s case held significant public interest and that the registrar had made an error in refusing to release documents.

Source: 12ft

Two women in Australia diagnosed with CTE after suffering decades of domestic violence, dozens of head injuries between them – ABC News

In short:

Two women who endured decades of partner violence have been diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

They are the first cases of CTE in domestic violence victims in Australia, and two of only a handful globally. CTE has mostly been found in male contact sports players who suffered repetitive head injury.

What’s next?

Experts say the discovery highlights the potential harms of long-term brain trauma and underscores the importance of screening DV victims for CTE at autopsy.

The women, aged in their 30s and 40s, died from blunt force injuries and impact trauma — one in an alleged assault and the other after being struck by a car.

—-

The pathologists examined their brains after reviewing their clinical records and learning they had at least 70 assault-related medical presentations and 35 documented head injuries related to partner violence between them.

One was found to have stage I CTE and the other stage II, the earliest, mildest forms of the disease.

Its symptoms can include memory loss and confusion, poor impulse control, severe depression and suicidality, though some people seemingly show no signs of illness at all. It can only be diagnosed post-mortem.

Source: Two women in Australia diagnosed with CTE after suffering decades of domestic violence, dozens of head injuries between them – ABC News

How can we curb the ‘alarming frequency’ of parents killing their children in Australia? | SBS News

Of the cases involving family and domestic violence, a history of intimate partner violence was found in nine out of 10 cases, with men being the primary perpetrators in most cases.

Men also comprised around two-thirds of the parents who killed their children.

The study found that, when men killed their children, it often followed a history of perpetrating intimate partner violence.

And when women killed their children, often they had experienced intimate partner violence.

Source: How can we curb the ‘alarming frequency’ of parents killing their children in Australia? | SBS News

Sexual violence ‘disturbingly common’ as research shows one in five admit to it | SMH

More than one in five adult Australians, including more than a quarter of men, say they have perpetrated at least one form of sexual violence – and one in 14 people had done so in the past 12 months.

In one of the first studies into self-reported perpetration of sexual violence, the Australian Institute of Criminology found 22 per cent of a representative national sample of 5000 people said they had committed some form of it since the age of 18.

Pressuring someone for dates or sex, emotionally or psychologically manipulating someone to participate in sexual activity, and non-consensual kissing or touching were the most common forms of sexual violence people said they had committed in the past 12 months.

Just over one in 10 respondents (11.4 per cent) said they had perpetrated sexual assault during adulthood, 2.7 per cent said they had had intercourse without the victim’s permission – which is rape – and 2.4 per cent had removed a condom during sex, a practice known as stealthing.

“Importantly, while one in six women reported perpetrating some form of sexual violence during adulthood … this was primarily attributable to their rates of sexual harassment and coercion perpetration,” the authors noted.

“These forms of sexual violence were the items with the smallest differences between men and women. In contrast, rates of perpetration of all forms of sexual assault and IBSA [image-based sexual abuse] were two to five times higher for men than women.”

Campaign group Our Watch’s chief executive, Patty Kinnersly, described the data as shocking and said it showed the gendered nature of sexual violence. “The volume of perpetrators demonstrates the need for efforts to end violence against women to be targeting the whole population,” she said.

“The evidence shows that the underlying drivers of violence against women, including sexual violence, are rigid gender stereotypes, gender inequality and disrespect. These attitudes and the violence they drive can be prevented.”

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/sexual-violence-disturbingly-common-as-research-shows-one-in-five-admit-to-it-20240709-p5js7y.html?

‘Do you like this position?’: The workplace rife with shocking sexual harassment

A Herald investigation has found sexual harassment of female staff is rife, but is often buried or ignored within NSW Corrective Services, the arm of the state government’s Department of Communities and Justice that’s responsible for running prisons.

Yet despite years of reports and data showing there have been significant sexual misconduct problems in at least 14 of Corrective Service’s work sites, it failed to implement key policies to stop it, forcing the workplace safety regulator to step in.

SafeWork NSW issued six improvement notices to Corrective Services between October 2023 and March this year warning that the department’s response to sexual misconduct was deficient across a host of measures and was putting workers at risk.

Staff from the Herald spoke to people who told their stories on the condition of anonymity to preserve their jobs and protect themselves from retribution. They say they have been enduring harassment for years, but have been too scared to report it, or their reports have not been acted upon.

They are speaking up now after a Special Commission of Inquiry into a staff member, Wayne Astill, who was convicted of raping 14 female inmates over five years, found a toxic culture of cover-up within the organisation and exposed myriad procedural failures (he is appealing against his convictions).

In a 2022 case, corrections officer Glenn Anthony Ash was convicted in Bathurst Local Court of 11 offences against colleagues at a Central West prison, including sexually touching without consent, carrying out a sexual act on another without consent, and assault with an act of indecency.

The incidents included asking colleagues to touch his penis, rubbing their backs and necks despite being told to stop, and masturbating in one complainant’s office. He also asked a complainant to “rearrange him” while unzipping his pants.

The Ash case prompted an independent review of the centre at which he worked, which led to misconduct proceedings against three more staff members. The results of the review have not been made public.

[T]he women who spoke to the Herald said in most cases the victims do not come forward, either because they feared retribution from the “boys’ club” or because if they did, no action was taken. The male officers protected each other.

“I know if I report anything it backfires on me,” said a different woman, who has had multiple experiences of serious harassment over her career. “We’re surrounded by toxicity. Colleagues are often more toxic than inmates. You have a false sense of security, you think if someone is wearing blue they have a strong sense of morals. But they don’t.”

The Herald approached Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong for comment, but he did not provide any.

Source: 12ft

Surrogacy Act and Status of Children Act | NSW Government

What’s this about?

The Department of Communities and Justice is seeking feedback from people in the community to help decide if changes to the law are needed to better protect children’s rights and support all types of families.

This includes:

  • families with LGBTIQA+ members
  • families who use special medical procedures to have children
  • families with children born through surrogacy.

The laws under review:

Get more information by downloading the Discussion Paper.

Contents of submissions may be made public. If you would like your submission to remain confidential, please let us know when making your submission.

Have your say

Have your say by Friday 2 August 2024.

Source: Surrogacy Act and Status of Children Act | NSW Government

Teenage boys are being ‘bombarded’ with misogynist content online. It’s making its way into the classroom – ABC News

News stories about the rise of misogynistic behaviour in schools are inescapable at the moment. Female teachers and students are facing harassment and sexual abuse in classrooms across the country.

It’s a trend that has risen in the dark shadow of social media personality Andrew Tate and other anti-feminist or anti-women content influencers in the so-called ‘manosphere’, and it’s pushing some female teachers to breaking point.

News stories about the rise of misogynistic behaviour in schools are inescapable at the moment. Female teachers and students are facing harassment and sexual abuse in classrooms across the country.

It’s a trend that has risen in the dark shadow of social media personality Andrew Tate and other anti-feminist or anti-women content influencers in the so-called ‘manosphere’, and it’s pushing some female teachers to breaking point.

As part of her research at Monash University, Dr Westcott spoke to 30 female teachers from across Australia and from all sectors including independent, faith-based and government schools. She says teachers are facing a rise in misogynistic behaviour.

“There was also a level of sexism and sexual harassment that teachers were experiencing that they hadn’t previously. For some women, it was constant and unrelenting in nearly every class that they taught,” Dr Westcott says.

“One woman reported to us that a student said to her, ‘Miss, your boobs look really good today’. A male student spat in his teacher’s water bottle. As well as gendered slurs like, ‘Why are the girls here? They don’t need an education. They can just make an OnlyFans account’.

Source: Teenage boys are being ‘bombarded’ with misogynist content online. It’s making its way into the classroom – ABC News