Women Speak Tasmania has written to Federal Health Minister Mark Butler to raise urgent concerns about the state of medical practices within Australia’s gender clinics. Following our recent campaign for a Tasmanian inquiry, we received a response from Tasmanian Health Minister Hon. Guy Barnett. His letter acknowledged our concerns and went further—calling for a Federal Inquiry into gender clinics nationwide.
This is a significant development. The issues at hand are not confined to Tasmania; they are systemic across the country.
What the Cass Review Reveals
At the heart of our advocacy is the Cass Review, the landmark independent review of gender services for children and young people in the UK. Its findings are impossible to ignore:
- The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne Standards of Care, widely used across Australia, scored only 19/100 for rigour of development and 14/100 for editorial independence.
- The World Professional Association of Trans Health (WPATH) Standards of Care (SOC 8), which underpin much of global gender medicine, scored only marginally better, at 35/100 for rigour and 39/100 for independence.
These dismal ratings highlight a fundamental problem: the guidelines shaping care for vulnerable children and adolescents in Australia are not built on strong evidence.
Suppressed Research and Lobby Group Influence
The Cass Review also exposed how deeply entrenched ideology has become within these guidelines. During a recent webinar hosted by Dr. Phillip Morris (President of the National Association of Practising Psychiatrists), Dr. Hilary Cass herself explained how RCH and WPATH guidelines largely copy and paste from one another, perpetuating weak evidence rather than strengthening it.
Even more alarming, WPATH had commissioned systematic reviews from Johns Hopkins University, only to suppress the findings when the evidence did not support gender-affirming interventions for minors. This scandal underscores the extent to which lobby groups and compromised medical associations have driven policy and practice—at the expense of children’s health.
A Call for a National Inquiry
Australia cannot afford to look away. Other nations—including Finland, Norway, Sweden, the UK, Chile, and Italy—have already restricted or banned the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in children. Even in the United States, once seen as the global leader of “gender-affirming” care, states are now moving towards caution.
We are urging the Federal Government to:
- Hold a National Inquiry into the operation of gender clinics in Australia.
- Implement an immediate ban on puberty blockers for children and adolescents.
- Return to a holistic, evidence-based model of care that places children’s long-term health and wellbeing above ideology.
Protecting Australia’s Children
This is not a question of politics—it is a question of safeguarding. Our children deserve medical care that is transparent, evidence-based, and free from ideological capture. The Cass Review makes clear that the current system has failed.
Australia must not wait for another generation of children to suffer the consequences of poor medical practice. We join Minister Barnett in calling on Minister Butler to act now.
Women Speak Tasmania will continue to advocate for women, children, and evidence-based medicine.