Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard famously said, “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the Government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever.”

She was referring to Tony Abbott and the Coalition opposition in 2012. Yet in 2013, as one of her final acts as Prime Minister, she showed her own complete disregard for women by removing women’s sex-based rights from law, by deleting the definition of male and female from the Sex Discrimination Act. 

There are no longer any protections for males or females according to sex, only for people identifying as male or female. 

We have been warning of the dire consequences of this devastating action since 2019 and now we are seeing the outworking of this, with the Federal Court of Australia removing the rights of women to have single sex spaces or services.

Sall Grover has been found guilty of indirect discrimination against male Roxy Tickle for refusing access to a female only app called Giggle. She has been ordered to pay $10,000 and costs up to $50,000.

Incredibly the judge declared men can be women and people can change sex, denying reality and rejecting science because the ‘law’ says so.

Roxanne Tickle is a transgender woman, whose female sex is recognised by an official updated Queensland birth certificate.  For that reason, I refer to her as Ms Tickle.  

Under the heading of “Factual findings and conclusions” Justice Bromwich stated, 

Those arguments failed, because the view propounded by the respondents conflicted with a long history of cases decided by courts going back over 30 years.  Those cases establish that, on its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable.  

Respectfully, we disagree.

Chromosomes don’t change. Reproductive systems can be mutilated or manipulated but they don’t change the reality of a person’s sex. Costumes, name changes, drugs and surgery are masks and mimics – they don’t change a person’s sex. To claim they do makes a mockery of science and reality!

Once upon a time the ‘law’ stated slavery and racism were legal – but that didn’t make it true or factual. It is our sincere hope that the decision is overturned on appeal, because it is utterly devastating to women’s sex-based rights.

Following this decision, it is clear that women no longer have any rights or protections under law for single-sex spaces, services or sport.

I have found that Ms Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails, but that her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds.   

I will make a declaration of contravention by way of unlawful indirect gender identity discrimination against the respondents, subject to input from the parties as to the form of that declaration.  I will also order the respondents to pay Ms Tickle compensation in the sum of $10,000 and to pay her costs, with a cap in respect of costs to do with the constitutional validity and statutory construction issues.

Sall Grover will now appeal to the High Court in a last ditch effort for us all. Politicians need to do the right thing and reinstate definitions of male and female back into legislation.