‘Collision of rights’: Katherine Deves breaks silence on campaign

Controversial Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, who has been both slammed and praised for her views on transgender sports, has denied she’s been hiding in a ‘witness protection program’.

Controversial Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, who has been both slammed and praised for her views on transgender sports, has denied she’s been hiding in a ‘witness protection program’ during the campaign.

The embattled candidate, who sparked a firestorm with her now-deleted Twitter posts, in which she described transgender children as "surgically mutilated and sterilised", was asked whether she was transphobic by Sydney 2GB host Ben Fordham on Friday morning.

"Of course not, Ben." “This is not about that.’’

Liberal candidate Katherine Deves speaks on 2GB on Friday.

She said her battle to have dedicated female-only sports was about protecting the rights of women and children to have a fair go, something she believed most Australians supported.

Ms Deves said women and children should not have to face an anti-discrimination tribunal to play in a sport which only had women.

“That is not mandated. That is not excluding anyone.’’

“There is legislation in place but not working in the way it should,’’ she said. ‘It should not be unlawful.’

Katherine Deves at the 2021 Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

The local lawyer and women’s advocate, who is raising three daughters in Manly Vale, with her partner David, said she wanted to put the rights of women in sport for fair competition on the agenda and she had done that.

But she acknowledged death threats, which had forced her family to move out of their home, had taken their toll.

“None of that was easy but I have entered public life to stand up for the people of Warringah and that comes as part of the job.’’

She was asked about how she dealt with message suggesting she should be set on fire.

‘You don’t look at it.’’ “I have a great supportive team around me who take care of those things.’

Katherine Deves has given one of her first interviews since controversy. Picture: Nikki Short

‘I believe this is very much an issue of equality and fairness and I have received messages of support from all over Australia. ‘Australians are very much on side with my position.’’

“All I wanted is to have the debate in the public domain.”

“This is about a collision of rights.’’

But she admits she has copped backlash from some, particularly on social media.

“Twitter is not a place you should prosecute difficult arguments,’’ Ms Deves said.

NSW Treasurer and moderate faction leader Matt Kean called for Deves to be dumped as the Warringah candidate, while Warringah MP Zali Steggall accused Scott Morrison of using Ms Devese as a deviation from other issues.

But Ms Deves maintained her arguments were about equality and fairness. “We really should be able to discuss conduct these debates in a respectful way,’’ she said when asked about Mr Kean’s push to get her dumped.

The candidate hand-picked by Mr Morrison for the Sydney seat said she believed she had a chance of winning the seat.

Katherine Deves - Liberal Candidate for Warringah - with her family. Photo: Facebook

“I wouldn’t have stood up if I didn’t believe I had a chance to win.”

She denied she had been put in ‘witness protection’ by the Liberal Party and told to lay low.

“Ben, it is my campaign and I have been out there every day talking to ordinary people,’’ Ms Deves said.

Last week she refused to enter a ‘politics in the pub’ event until all media were evicted and has faced internal party calls to stand aside.

Katherine Deves on the campaign trail. Photo: Facebook

“I have fought for women and children and now I am fighting for Warringah,” she said last week in her only statement before entering the debate venue.

Ms Deves told Fordham she really wanted to concentrate on issues important for locals.

She said she had no plans to give up.

“I think you need to have the courage of your convictions,’’ Ms Deves said when asked what she was telling her daughters about her stand and the election campaign.

She reiterated she had apologised for the inappropriate language she had used in trying to argue for the safety of women and girls in sport.

The Australian reported this week that Ms Deves, will visit the Sydney Jewish Museum in May in an act of contrition for comments she made comparing the fight to exclude transgender athletes from women’s sports to resistance to the Holocaust.

Ms Deves accepted an invitation from NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and Australian Jewry officials.

“Thank you for the important work you do in the community and I appreciate your kind offer to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum, to learn more about the tragedy of Holocaust and its aftermath,” Ms Deves said in an email.

She will tour the exhibits and meet with a Holocaust survivor before the May election.

Originally published as ‘Collision of rights’: Katherine Deves breaks silence on campaign