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

I rise tonight to offer my congratulations to the Flying Bats Football Club, not for dominating amateur women's competition while fielding five male players, forcing female players to walk away from the game and causing opposing women's teams to forfeit—no! I congratulate them for demonstrating exactly what Australian sporting CEOs, bureaucrats and ministers wanted when they said that male intrusion in women's sport was a good thing for inclusion. For years now, highly paid sporting CEOs and government ministers have told us that fairness for female players at community level isn't a priority. The Flying Bats are proving that this is indeed the case.

Many Australians are rightly outraged that women and girls are being subjected to such unfairness, but you need to know that this is no accident. It was the deliberate policy of Australia's major sporting codes and a direction right from the very top—from the Australian Sports Commission CEO and the Minister for Sport—to force women and girls to put up with this unfairness and to smear as bigots those who spoke out. Football Australia and Football NSW chose to align themselves with Sport Australia inclusion guidelines in 2019 by stating that male players identifying as women were permitted to play in women's competition despite the fact that it was obvious that this policy would result in the exact situation which is now occurring with the Flying Bats. And there is even worse than that situation being permitted. The ABC reported last year:

Sources have also confirmed to ABC Sport that other registered football participants (including players, coaches, and officials) who have commented, shared, or contributed to discriminatory posts on social media platforms will be investigated by the appropriate football authorities. Punishments could include suspension from competitions as well as possible police charges.

Let's be clear. They were talking about suspension from competitions and criminal charges for female players or coaches of women's teams who publicly opposed the inclusion of males in women's competition.

But it wasn't just one sport shamelessly throwing women under the bus and threatening anyone who spoke out. The AFL's community football gender policy explicitly states that males identifying as women or non-binary can choose to play in women's competitions. Here's a direct quote from that policy:

It is the AFL's view that in community football social inclusion has a greater priority than concerns about possible competitive advantages if gender diverse players participate.

According to the AFL, it is a greater priority for males to be able to choose to play women's football than it is for females to have a competition of their own. The AFL goes on to say:

Refusing to play against a team with a (suspected) gender diverse player runs against the AFL's principles of inclusion as set out in the Gender Diversity PolicyCommunity Football and is also discriminatory. This will not be tolerated by the AFL.

So not only do women not get to choose to play in a single-sex competition; the AFL says they can't even choose to opt out if they find out they're going to be playing against males in full-contact football.

All of the major sporting codes in Australia allow male intrusion into women's sport at the community level. Some of those sports, such as rugby, swimming and athletics, have international governing bodies which have specifically adopted policies acknowledging that it is not fair for males to compete in women's competitions. Yet, at a local level, the Australian administrators actively encourage it. These administrators thought that they'd get away with it, as long as women's teams getting smashed by males wasn't televised.

But now the Flying Bats are showing us what males competing in women's community sport looks like, and at least some administrators are waking up. Football NSW have called on the federal government to review existing legislation and guidelines, have slammed government agencies for offering no support and have stated that, in the 2024 environment, Football NSW holds serious concerns about the safety of its female players. The legislation that they are now calling to have reviewed is the exact same legislation I propose to amend with my save women's sports bill, by clarifying that single-sex sport for women is lawful at all levels—but sports then said that there was no need to do so. I hope that when the male players on the Flying Bats accept their next trophy they remember to thank the CEOs and Minister Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for refusing to act to protect women single-sex sport in Australia.