Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians were shocked to see our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, dodging the question 'What is a woman?' when asked recently by a member of the Women's Rights Network Australia at an event—

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please resume your seat, Senator Chandler. Senator Polley, a point of order? What is your point?

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it's appropriate to treat the title of the first female prime minister of this country with respect, so I would remind the senator—through you, Madam Acting Deputy President—to use people's proper title.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Chandler, you're aware of the standing orders.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe I did refer to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and that is my understanding of what is in accordance with the standing orders.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Please continue.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. I might start again. Australians were shocked to see our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, dodging the question 'What is a woman?' when asked recently by a member of the Women's Rights Network Australia at an event about women's advancement. Ms Gillard described this question as a 'gotcha parlour game', but it is no game. The reason people ask leaders this question is that women's single-sex spaces and sports depend on it. A woman is an adult human female. Only those who are happy to let males into women's spaces or who are too scared of abusive activists to answer the question truthfully have any difficulty saying that.

The reason it was particularly pertinent to ask Ms Gillard 'What is a woman?' is that it was the Gillard government in 2013 that removed the definition of 'woman' from the Sex Discrimination Act, and it was that decision which led directly to some of the most perverse policy decisions Australia has ever witnessed. It is the failure of leaders to answer the question 'What is a woman?' that covers up the horrific impacts of this policy failure.

In 2014, an Australian man was found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing his own six-year-old daughter during access visits. This man, after being released from prison, repeatedly breached his sex offender reporting obligations. He then committed a serious sexual assault on a woman and was convicted yet again, but the second time he was convicted and sentenced the Australian media and the court which sentenced him called him a woman and placed him in a women's prison. Is this disgusting, vile man who raped his own six-year-old daughter a woman, Ms Gillard?

Two weeks ago, Gymnastics Australia was forced to join the National Redress Scheme for institutionalised child sexual abuse. The majority of gymnastics participants in Australia are young girls. Last week, though, under the cover of the referendum date announcement, Gymnastics Australia announced a policy that says:

Within Gymnastics Australia and Australian Gymnastics Organisation managed facilities, people have the right to use changing and bathroom facilities which best reflects their gender identity.

This means that males can use women's changerooms where young girls are changing and there is nothing that those girls or their parents can do to stop that. This is happening in an organisation which only a week prior joined the National Redress Scheme for child sexual abuse. It's as if Gymnastics Australia has wilfully chosen to ignore everything that has ever been learnt about safeguarding young girls from opportunistic, predatory male sex abuse in exchange for a few extra reward points from a lobby group which has its logo plastered all over this same Gymnastics Australia policy.

Of course, Gymnastics Australia was following the lead of many Australian sporting organisations, including the Albanese government's top sports bureaucrats, who encourage males identifying as women to participate in women's sport. What's the reason that Gymnastics Australia and all of those other sporting organisations give for allowing males into women's sporting facilities? The Sex Discrimination Act requires them to. And that's because the Gillard government took the definition of 'woman' out of the act, and the Albanese government has refused to consider my save women's sports bill, which would put it back in and protect single-sex sport for women.

So what is a woman, Ms Gillard? What is a woman, Mr Albanese and Premier Daniel Andrews—

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Chandler, can I remind you to make your comments to the chair.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course, Madam Acting Deputy President. If they say that it's an adult human female, as Mr Albanese, our Prime Minister, has in the past, then they need to explain why a man who raped his six-year-old daughter was called a woman and placed in a women's prison in Australia. They need to explain to Australian women and girls all over the country why they're no longer entitled to single-sex sport, health services or crisis support.

Most importantly, they need to listen to the calls of women and girls from right across this country who are asking them to act and restore the rights of Australian women and girls to have single-sex sport and spaces.