Women Speak Tasmania

Category: Blog

  • Tasmanian Forum on Conversion Therapy Laws Highlights Free Speech and Debate

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    On November 23, 2022, the Free Speech Alliance Australia hosted a forum at Parliament House, Hobart, to discuss proposed Tasmanian laws banning conversion therapy. The event, supported by Liberal MP Lara Alexander, brought together experts, survivors, and concerned citizens to examine the risks, impacts, and consultation process surrounding the legislation. Forum convener Isla MacGregor welcomed…

  • Reflecting on the Coalition for Biological Reality Forum “Gender Identity in Law”

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    On 26 February 2022, Hobart Town Hall hosted the long-awaited Gender Identity in Law forum, organised by the Coalition for Biological Reality. Originally scheduled for 28 August 2021, the event was postponed due to COVID-19 lockdowns, but the determination of organisers and supporters ensured it finally went ahead. The forum was created to spark an…

  • How a Tasmanian Senator’s Defence of Free Speech Triggered a Vexatious Discrimination Complaint

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    In July 2020, amid rising global debates over cancel culture, Liberal Senator for Tasmania Claire Chandler published a powerful Talking Point in The Mercury titled “Big names spark turning point against free speech attacks.” Senator Chandler highlighted the Harper’s Magazine open letter signed by 150 prominent writers and academics, including Noam Chomsky, Margaret Atwood, and…

  • Senator Chandler Holds Sport Australia to Account on Women’s Sport

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    Tasmanian Liberal Senator Claire Chandler has shone a much-needed spotlight on the controversial Guidelines for the Inclusion of Transgender and Gender Diverse People in Sport during Senate Estimates hearings. In a robust exchange on 4 March 2020, Senator Chandler pressed officials from Sport Australia and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on the real-world impact…

  • Sex, Law, and Safeguarding: Why Tasmania Must Not Erase Women from the Births, Deaths & Marriages Act

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    The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), Southern Tasmania, has provided a detailed response to Equal Opportunity Tasmania’s (EOT) “Options Paper” proposing changes to the Births, Deaths & Marriages Registration Act 1999 (BDMR Act). Their message is simple: sex matters, and erasing it from law will undermine women’s rights, safeguarding, and service delivery across Tasmania. What’s at…

  • Prostitution – The Global Humanitarian Disaster of the 21C

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    At a public event held at Parliament House in Hobart, Tasmanian advocate Isla MacGregor delivered a lecture examining Amnesty International’s 2016 policy supporting the full decriminalisation of the sex trade. Speaking alongside survivor advocate Simone Watson of the Nordic Model Australia Coalition, MacGregor questioned whether Amnesty’s approach prioritised the rights of those selling sex or…