Fringe groups challenge Queensland human rights laws
A rabble of fringe groups – including anti-abortionists, bikers and a right-wing women’s group opposed to transgender people – will attempt to use Queensland’s new human rights laws to push their own agenda.
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FRINGE groups, including greenies, women’s groups, anti-abortionists and bikies, will attempt to use Queensland’s new human rights laws to push their own agenda.
Submissions to an inquiry into the proposed laws have highlighted the complexity and potential pitfalls of enshrining human rights in law.
In one submission, the newly formed Fair Go For Queensland Women said it wanted to use the laws to enshrine women’s only bathrooms and block transgender people from using them.
The group, which wants the laws to codify that humans cannot change sex, also argues women and girls require single-sex spaces, facilities and service provision.
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“Women and girls should not be forced to be in stages of undress in shared spaces with male persons,” the group said.
The group said women and girls’ human rights had been “neglected in the desire to attend to trans (sic) women’s stated rights”.
“We contend that gender identity MUST (sic) be held beneath considerations of the needs of women and girls,” it said.
Most of the 145 submissions, including from legal organisations, universities, and social, welfare and civil liberties’ groups, welcomed the legislation, which would protect 23 human rights, but called for a raft of changes.
Some special interest groups flagged they could use the laws to challenge other legislation.
The Unborn Children’s Advocacy Network said the law should extend to unborn children, which would open the way to challenge laws passed earlier this year legalising abortion.
Anti-fracking group Lock the Gate Alliance said environmental rights should be included to protect communities from having mining “developments forced upon them”.
Bikies argued that laws prohibiting them from wearing certain clothes would breach the laws.
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