Tag: 2026
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Tasmania Must Act Now on Puberty Blockers: A Call to Health Minister Bridget Archer and Attorney-General Guy Barnett
As the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reveals Australia’s blind spots on puberty blockers for gender-distressed minors, Women Speak Tasmania is renewing our urgent call for action. Our February 26 media release demands that Tasmania’s Health Minister Bridget Archer and Attorney-General Guy Barnett immediately review the clinical, regulatory, and legal frameworks governing these off-label treatments. With…
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Tasmania Health Minister and Attorney-General Must Act on the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Drug Alert
Women Speak Tasmania is calling on Tasmania’s Health Minister and Attorney-General to urgently review the clinical, regulatory, and legal framework surrounding the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs to minors, following the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s recent report into their off-label use in Australia. A report in The Australian on 23 February 2026 detailing the Therapeutic Goods Administration…
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Women Speak Tasmania’s Experience with Media Framing in Our Discrimination Case
At Women Speak Tasmania, we are committed to advocating for the sex-based rights, safety, and dignity of women and girls, while also emphasizing the importance of child safeguarding and parental involvement in critical matters affecting young people. Our work often intersects with complex and sensitive debates on sex and gender, and we believe these discussions…
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Formal Request for Correction and Right of Reply – Letter to Craig Herbert
Email sent to Craig Herbert, editor of The Hobart Mercury – 25 February 2026 Dear Craig, I am writing on behalf of Women Speak Tasmania regarding your article published on 2 February 2026, titled “Women Speak Tasmania claims discrimination over canned library forum.” We were concerned to see the article report on legal proceedings involving…
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How the House of Cards Is Coming Down: The Queensland Gender Clinic Scandal
For years, Australians were told that medical gender transition for children was “settled science.” Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were described as safe, reversible, and necessary to prevent harm. Parents who hesitated were often reassured — or pressured — that delaying treatment placed their child at risk. Then Queensland happened. What began as a local…
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Failure of Impartiality in Reporting on Sex-Based Rights – Letter to Linton Besser
Dear Linton Besser, I am concerned about the continual mischaracterisation by ABC of women’s rights campaigners as “anti trans”, when in fact we are simply defending our right of association. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-23/lesbian-group-transgender-exemption-federal-court/106375606 Lesbians don’t “want the right to exclude trans women”- they want to assert women’s right of association. The Australian Human Rights Commission on the…
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Flying blind on puberty blockers
Australia’s medicine safety officials have warned the federal government they are flying blind on the use of puberty blocker drugs for gender-distressed minors. The country’s first safety assessment of this drug use — revealed in documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws — followed news of the 2024 UK decision to impose an indefinite ban…
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Erosion of Trust in the ABC – A Tasmanian Perspective
For years, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has partnered with ACON, the leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation, through programs like the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) and its Pride Network. While the ABC insists editorial independence is maintained, this close relationship has fuelled growing concerns about bias, selective reporting, and cultural pressures in newsrooms—particularly on issues…
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Safety and Mental Health Concerns for Girls in the Miss Tasmania Pageant
Why Biological Males Competing Undermines Child Safeguarding and Female Empowerment In February 2026, Mini Miss Pageants announced Lucy Violet Faulkner — a trans-identified man from Geelong, Victoria — as a 2026 Miss Tasmania contestant. The original social media post was quickly removed after strong community backlash. The Tasmanian papers focused heavily on claims of “hatred”…
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Reviewing Amnesty International’s Position on Prostitution: A Survivor-Centred Perspective
Before the formation of Women Speak Tasmania, members were already active in campaigning against the decriminalisation of prostitution and advocating for the rights and safety of survivors. Isla MacGregor played a leading role in Tasmania, working alongside Simone Watson and the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NorMAC) to promote the Nordic Model. Together, they lobbied policymakers,…