Ignore Katherine Deves at your peril Prime Minister

If the Liberals are serious about winning this election, Katherine Deves should be allowed to stand her ground writes James Morrow.

If the Liberals are serious about winning this election, Katherine Deves should not be hustled out of events while the press pack screams “are you transphobic?” at her, as happened at a campaign event Sunday.

Instead, she should be allowed to stand her ground and answer very simply, “No.”

It’s the answer she has given to multiple journalists when asked about some of the more robust – and, let’s be frank, occasionally over the line – comments she has made in the past while campaigning to protect women and girls from having to compete in sport against biological males.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that large swathes of middle Australia are on Deves’s side Picture: Jason Edwards

While the outrage mongers may choose not to admit that in the complex clash of rights over transgender participation in sport, the ideal of “inclusion” must be balanced against basic fairness and safety, plenty of other people do.

It is one of those issues that divides so-called elite opinion from the broad, sensible centre of Australian opinion that does not think it is “transphobic” to have this discussion.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australians were sick of “walking on eggshells”. Picture By Jason Edwards

Anecdotal evidence suggests that large swathes of middle Australia are on Deves’s side in this debate, and are as Prime Minister Scott Morrison said recently about her, sick of “walking on eggshells” around these difficult topics for fear of being labelled a bigot.

To let her be silenced, or appear to be silenced, either by braying commentators on social media or, worse, by dinner party revolutionaries within the Liberal party is a tremendous mistake and threatens to be seen as a vote of no confidence both in the candidate and the voters.