The controversy concerns the meaning of “sex” in the act and its interaction with gender identity discrimination. The Coalition wants to amend the act to include a definition of biological sex, arguing “the law does not properly protect single sex spaces for women and girls”.
But what’s missing from the conversation is how the Sex Discrimination Act works and what it was designed to achieve.
What is the Sex Discrimination Act?
The Sex Discrimination Act is a federal law. It originally became law in 1984 and protected people from sex, pregnancy and marital status discrimination.
Currently, the act protects people from discrimination based on a wider range of attributes, called “protected attributes”. These include their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, marital or relationship status, pregnancy or potential pregnancy status, breastfeeding or family responsibilities.
What are the exceptions?
The act contains many exceptions allowing conduct that would otherwise be discriminatory. For example, there are general exceptions for services where they can only be provided to members of one sex.
Exceptions also apply to staff and students in religious educational institutions.
There are exceptions for participation in sports where strength, stamina or physique is relevant.
It is also not discrimination to provide affirmative action or equal opportunity measures. But these exceptions, called “special measures”, cannot discriminate on the basis of other protected attributes.
Very few court tests
The recent decision of Giggle For Girls v Tickle was the first case of gender identity discrimination heard by the Federal Court. The full bench found a transgender woman had been directly discriminated against on the basis of gender by being refused access to a women-only social media app.
[T]he High Court has not heard a sex discrimination claim in 20 years.
It has never considered the act and its prohibitions on discrimination. This means there is little higher court authority on how its provisions operate.
The 2013 changes
In 2013, the federal Sex Discrimination Act was amended to include the attributes of gender identity, sexual orientation, intersex status and relationship status.
The definitions of “man” and “woman” were also removed and are instead understood by their “normal meaning”. This means the words aren’t narrowly interpreted to exclude transgender people.
In 2013, the amendments made to the Sex Discrimination Act were not particularly controversial. As then-Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus noted in respect of a Senate Committee Report on human rights and discrimination legislation: “all parties agree on one issue – the pressing need for protection from discrimination for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community at the federal level.”
[Ed: And indeed the Liberal Party led by Tony Abbott in the lower house supported the 2013 amendment and when in power made no move to repeal it. The Liberal Party has also persecuted its own members who spoke out against it, including Kath Deves and Moira Deeming.]
Source: What is the Sex Discrimination Act and how does it protect people? – Law Society Journal
I would argue that Moira Deeming’s castigation was in a specific Victorian Liberal context where the Libs were too intimidated by Labor premier Andrews to even attempt to push back on any ‘woke’ causes, be they support of women’s rights or calls for ‘treaty’ ‘truth’ etc. Much to their discredit.
Why Abbott’s government did not do their home work and get down close to the legislation and see the flaws I have no idea. And again, much to their discredit.
At present women’s rights are under sustained attack from mad woke nonsense laws to reproductive issues such as surrogacy. To part out women’s reproduction for comercial surrogacy use to allow same sex male couples to excercise their ‘right’ to have a baby is obscene. (or even a single man desiring a child…)
The trans ‘affirmative care’ model is the only one I’ve seen in mental health that covers a dellusional disorder. If John Citizen comes in to my mental health centre ‘identifying’ as Jesus Christ or Napoleon then it’s a quick IM injection of Accuphase.
Lets not forget how Tony Abbott also promoted Cate McGregor’s story on the ABC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIpYNWwX3ww. Tony Abbott was a key architect and promoter of the gender identity ideology – regardless of what he might say now.