Women need voice

The debate over the religious freedom Bill was poorly timed as it should have followed on from a Bill on amendments to the Federal Sex Discrimination Act to properly define the definition of woman and man.

Fortunately, Senator Claire Chandler’s Bill for amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act to save women sports will be debated in the federal parliament today. Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act, often touted as a gold standard for discrimination laws, fails to provide protections for women.

The Anti-Discrimination Act has been hotly contested since its amendment to include privileged rights for gender diverse people to the detriment of women. We need a national referendum on sex-based discrimination in light of the push by the gender lobby to conflate sex and gender.

It is astonishing that it has taken the debate over the religious freedom Bill to highlight a furore that has been boiling away in Australia for several years. The majority of Australians understand that science has its basis in facts and no more so than biological sex.

In the guise of political dogma citing “kindness, inclusion and equality”, exclusion of women’s voices has been the tragic result. Its time the media gave more space to women’s voices over this critical issue concerning the systemic attack on girls and women’s rights.

Isla MacGregor

Published in The Mercury 15th February 2022