As many as half of the toilets in all new public buildings including stadiums, shopping malls, and office blocks could soon be designated as ‘gender neutral’.
As many as half of the toilets in all new public buildings including stadiums, shopping malls, and office blocks could soon be designated as “gender neutral” under a proposed new building code that has been slammed as compromising safety for ideology.
The rule change is part of a draft update to the National Construction Code, which the Australian Building Codes Board has had open for exhibition since February, with the board saying it was “intended to prioritise female use while serving all users”.
Urban Taskforce CEO Tom Forrest said that “matters like this should not be in the construction code”.
“The NCC must focus on setting minimum standards to ensure structural integrity, fire safety and waterproof building construction. It has grown from an initial 200 pages to over 2000 today. That’s red tape that needs to be cleared. Consumer preference will drive toilet type and supply.”
Polling indicates the move will be deeply unpopular.
According to polling released by the Australian Christian Lobby, 87 per cent of all Australians and more than 90 per cent of women are opposed to the idea, citing privacy, safety and hygiene concerns.
“If you talk to women on the street, most would rather ‘hold it’ than use a shared facility,” ACL chief executive Michelle Pearse said.
“There also issues with hygiene and many women will talk about the issues they have sharing toilets with men in a domestic situation and they don’t want to be dealing with that in a public situation.
“This is ideology compromising public safety.”
A leading builder told The Daily Telegraph: “More bloody pointless rules, this is the last thing this industry needs. We’re trying to keep things simple, cheap, and functional and some clown from Canberra comes in with feel-good rubbish like this.
“Sure, I feel sorry for the people who don’t know which door to pick, but do we really need to change everything for a tiny minority?”
While builders would not be forced to provide all gender toilets, Ms Pearse said that women would have no choice but to live with the change in any building where it was implemented.
She added that developers would likely choose to go along with the code “as the path of least resistance” to obtain project approval.
One advocacy group which describes itself as “a research-based advocacy organisation working to improve gender equity in architecture” and lobbied for the change, says this is only the beginning.
“The current proposal is a first step and will remove barriers for people who want to implement this solution,” the website of advocacy group Parlour reads.
NSW Liberal upper house member Rachel Merton said: “Once again we see the biologic rights of girls and women sacrificed for the interests of radical gender ideology.
“Yesterday in NSW it was our birth certificates. Today it’s the public toilets. What’s next? These proposed changes stink and should be rejected by the Minns government. Women and girls deserve better than to have their privacy, safety and hygiene flushed down the S-bend.”
So far Tasmania is the only state to reject the change out of hand.
NSW has announced that it will adopt the new code on May 1, 2027.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Building Anoulack Chanthivong said: “NSW variations to the 2025 edition of the code will not be published until 1 May 2026 and NCC 2025 will commence in NSW on 1 May 2027.
“Our priority remains lifting standards, enforcing the rules and protecting homeowners across NSW.”
by James Morrow
Source: The Daily Telegraph
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