By Bronwyn Williams and Isla MacGregor – Women Speak Tasmania
Transforming Tasmania’s proposed changes to birth registration and anti-discrimination law in Tasmania are radical amendments that shouldn’t be rushed through parliament.
Labor and the Greens need to support the Government’s referral of those amendments to the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute so the Tasmanian people can have their say.
These amendments, if they become law, will affect all Tasmanians, including every baby born in the state. We are particularly concerned about the negative impact on the rights of women and girls, and the implications for free speech in Tasmania.
Today, Women Speak Tasmania sent a booklet compiled by the Feminist Legal Clinic in Sydney, NSW to all members of the Tasmanian parliament. The booklet, titled ‘Impacts of Transactivism on the Human Rights of Women and Girls’, is essential reading for those making decisions on behalf of Tasmanians, around 50 per cent of whom are female.
Negative impacts have already been experienced by girls and women in education, sports, prisons, hospitals and women’s refuges all over the world. Women’s rights have been left behind in favour of trans rights, as everyone struggles to stay on the right side of rapidly evolving anti-discrimination laws that support the trans agenda.
Our position is clear. We’ve offered an alternative legislative solution, posted it on our Facebook page –https://www.facebook.com/womenspeaktas/ – and distributed it to all members of parliament and the media, along with a range of detailed supporting information.
We challenge Martine Delaney and Ella Haddad and Cassy O’Connor to make their proposals public. Not vague assurances they won’t affect anybody but transgender people, but a detailed breakdown of how they want the law to change.
Women Speak Tasmania is a network of women and their supporters based in Tasmania. We operate as a secular group. We are not aligned with any political party or ideology. We share research and information on a broad range of women’s rights issues. These include – female only spaces, services, groups and facilities; the sexualisation of girls and women; pornography/prostitution and the harms of the global sex trade; surrogacy as a violation of women’s human rights; and ending male violence against girls and women. We understand that sex-based oppression affects all women, and underlies all abuses of female rights. We support the right of women to speak freely about the inequities and discrimination they experience. We aim to give a voice to girls and women in the pursuit of justice, peace and security. We support full autonomy and personal freedom for all women.
Source: Tasmanian Times