Anti-trans sport campaigner claims win as AVO withdrawn

A conservative campaigner against trans players in female sport says she feels vindicated after an AVO taken against her by police on behalf of a Sydney transwoman soccer player was withdrawn in court.

A conservative campaigner against trans players in female sport says she feels vindicated after an AVO taken against her by police on behalf of a Sydney transwoman soccer player was withdrawn in court.

Mum-of-three Kirralie Smith believes this is the first case in Australia where police apprehended violence orders were used in response to a social media post questioning a transgender woman playing in a female soccer competition.

Ms Smith, 52, was forced to hire top lawyers to defend her at Burwood Local Court — including former NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith, SC, to argue on free speech on constitutional grounds — and police withdrew the AVO in court at the last minute.

“It’s a win for free speech,” Ms Smith, a director of Binary Australia, said.

“It should never have been brought against me. It was ridiculous — I am one of the most polite, tamest Twitter users there are.”

Kirralie Smith and her lawyer Greg Smith, a former NSW Attorney-General, outside court.

Police served the AVO on behalf of Riley Dennis on the basis of a tweet Ms Smith posted critical of the fact the player was the highest goal scorer in the Football NSW League One Women’s first grade competition at the time.

In her tweet she did not name Ms Dennis but described the player as a male and questioned how fair the competition was.

Police served the AVO on behalf of soccer play Riley Dennis (dark uniform), who was the top goal scorer in the First Grade FNSW League 1 Womens competition.

After a complaint by Football Australia (FA), police visited Ms Smith and issued the AVO, preventing her from approaching or discussing Ms Dennis or visiting FA’s offices, despite Ms Smith living 300km away on the NSW north coast.

“She’s never met this person, never contacted this person, they didn’t email each other, they didn’t talk on social media,” Ms Smith’s solicitor Kyle Kutasi said.

“All she did was point out there were men playing women’s football and that was enough for Football Australia to bring a complaint to NSW Police on this person’s behalf. It’s highly extraordinary.”

Ms Smith said the AVO was taken out because her post incited violence but she said all she did was “repost publicly available information from Football NSW”.

Ms Smith said the legal win was a victory for free speech.

Ms Smith had never had contact with Dennis.

“Our argument was going to be firstly, it doesn’t reach the standards of violence, and an AVO is an inappropriate use of that law,” she said.

“If that failed, we were going into a constitutional argument about implied freedom of political speech.

“I should have every right to use public information to inform the public about males playing in female sporting teams. The process of all this is the punishment.”

Ms Smith still faces more court battles over other social media posts, including a test case before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal for “misgendering” the player.

Football NSW and Football Australia have been approached for a response.