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

Women and girls should be entitled to compete in sport in female single-sex categories. That is the position that I have held and advocated for for many years. It's a position which the vast majority of Australians share, and it's a position which this week has been put to the United Nations in the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem. After an extensive consultation and investigation, Ms Alsalem's report, tabled this week, recommends that sport at all levels must 'ensure that female categories in organised sport are exclusively accessible to persons whose biological sex is female.'

For most people, particularly women and girls competing in sport, this is an overwhelmingly obvious conclusion. We all know that males have huge advantages in strength, speed, stamina and physique in comparison to females. As Ms Alsalem's report points out, it has been extensively demonstrated by experts that reducing testosterone levels does not go even close to removing all these male performance advantages. So how is it that many sporting organisations have been so callous, so scientifically illiterate and so corrupted that they have deliberately chosen to remove the right to female sport and allow males to choose to compete against women and girls?

Through her consultation, Ms Alsalem has found the same problem that we find every time someone looks into this issue and actually consults with women. Her report says:

… women and girls in sports are rarely consulted by sports associations on guidelines regarding whether sport should remain sex-separated, and they have faced negative repercussions when reclaiming their right to single-sex sport, in efforts to silence them.

That is exactly what has happened for years now. Women have been abused and threatened and told that they will lose their careers in sport if they speak up and say that they support single-sex sport for women and girls. Thankfully, though, many have been brave enough to speak out and, when female athletes are consulted and allowed to have their say without fear of repercussions, we know that they support single-sex competition. That is why so many sporting bodies around the world have listened to female athletes and moved protect the female category from male intrusion.

It is shameful that many others have refused to act. That includes the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee, who allowed female competitors to be forced out of competition by male competitors at the recent Paris Olympics. But, shockingly, it also includes all the major Australian sporting codes and the Australian Sports Commission. When will the Australian government and Australian sporting codes finally wake up and realise that women and girls must be entitled to compete in their own sex category?

Yesterday, the New Zealand government took an important step towards safety and fairness for women by directing Sport New Zealand to rewrite its guidelines for community sport, which currently tell sporting organisations that men identifying as women can take part in women's sport. The New Zealand minister for sport and recreation, in announcing the review of the existing guidelines, said:

I have come to the view that the Guiding Principles do not reflect legitimate community expectations that sport at a community level should not just be focused on diversity, inclusion and equity—but also prioritise fairness and safety.

That is a very sensible statement, and one which almost everyone would agree with.

Why on earth would we ever have got to a position where fairness and safety for women and girls wasn't the top priority in women's community sport? Here in Australia, though, the government and Australian Sports Commission have refused to accept that women and girls should be guaranteed the right to single-sex sport. The Albanese government refused to support my bill to ensure that sports, clubs and volunteers cannot have legal action taken against them for keeping males out of women's sport. That bill would've stopped the absurd and dangerous situation that occurred earlier this year when a team featuring multiple males won a women's football competition. On numerous occasions women's teams were forced to forfeit because of the sheer unfairness and the risk of injury. More than six months have passed since Football NSW begged the federal sports minister to review existing legislation, but the Albanese government should be absolutely ashamed that they have they ignored Football NSW and, even more so, that they've ignored women all over Australia who just want sport to be fair and safe.