Peta Credlin: Trans women in sport debate simply about fairness

People like federal Liberal candidate Katherine Deves and even multiple Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm are giving a simple message on trans women in sport, writes Peta Credlin.

When I interviewed Olympic swimming champion Emily Seebohm on Friday night about the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sport, her message couldn’t have been simpler. “We just want a level playing field. It’s about fairness.”

And she’s right. After all, fairness is fundamental to sporting integrity. It’s why we drug-test competitors and we have rules in sport.

Yet without biological fairness, women’s sport is doomed because the physiological reality of men competing against women is hard to ignore. At last year’s Tokyo Olympics, Seebohm won a bronze medal in the 200m backstroke with an impressive time of 2 minutes 6.17 secs. But, as good as it was, her medal-winning time would not have even qualified her for the men’s semi-finals. Protecting the rights of women and girls to participate in sport on fair terms should be something all of us can support.

Indeed until a few years ago, this would have been an uncontroversial statement.

Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm says she doesn’t want to race against biological men. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Yet in these topsy-turvy times it’s now deemed contentious – and people speaking out, like the Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, face demonisation, abuse and concerted campaigns to silence them.

Has Deves got everything right? No she hasn’t. And for that, she’s apologised, as she should. But she’s a suburban mum of three girls who probably never imagined she would run for office or that her past social media comments would be trawled through and thrown back at her in an election campaign.

Like Labor’s candidate in the Hunter, she’s apologised for past online posts but, unlike the Labor bloke, she remains in the firing line even within her own party.

It strikes me as truly bizarre that the NSW Treasurer Matt Kean was out in the media last week demanding that the Liberal Party disendorse Deves over these old social media posts, despite her apology.

It wasn’t that long ago that Kean himself was apologising to the electorate, and his own colleagues, for a series of tawdry text messages that he sent to a fellow minister, seeking sexual favours, while in a relationship with a junior federal staffer.

So he’s allowed to apologise and move on, yet wants to deny Deves the same opportunity?

Beyond the sheer hypocrisy, I know there are plenty of Liberal supporters angry that Kean has waded in against the Prime Minister’s hand-picked candidate in the middle of a tightly fought election campaign and, if reports are true, it’s driving many of them to volunteer for Deves.

That’s the thing about this issue.

Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves has been harshly criticised for her views on trans women. Picture: Backgrid

There’s a debate amongst the elites, and lots of gender nonsense being forced on people, including what you can and can’t say, such as terms like “breastfeeding mother” replaced with “chestfeeding person”.

And then there’s the real world, where people are basically decent, but don’t accept that in order to avoid discrimination against a very small number of transgender Australians we have to disadvantage the entire female population.

I entirely accept that there are people who feel trapped in the wrong body, and admire the courage and authenticity of those, like my friend Cate McGregor, who go through a lengthy process of transition. But the most recent census data had just 1260 people (out of 25 million) who identified as transgender.

And respecting people like Cate is quite different from encouraging gender fluidity, insisting that gender is a social construct, and even criminalising – as in Victoria – any attempt to encourage uncertain and maybe confused teenagers to wait before embarking on irreversible change.

It’s no surprise to me that in a federal election campaign where there doesn’t seem to be much difference between small-target Labor and the Labor-lite Liberals this issue has taken off.

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has called for Ms Deves to be disendorsed. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

Rather than continue to muzzle her, if the NSW Liberal head office were smart, they would allow Deves to speak freely and lend her voice to an issue that might just prompt Scott Morrison’s disillusioned “quiet Australians” to get out and back him once more.

And Morrison could help himself here too.

Two months ago, the Prime Minister said that he supported a Tasmanian senator’s private member’s bill to protect women’s sporting groups that stopped unfair competition from biological males.

Senator Claire Chandler’s bill was “terrific”, he said; and he was “encouraging her”. Now, he says that it’s not government policy and that it should be a free vote.

But hang on, free (or “conscience”) votes are normally only for matters of life and death. Why shouldn’t it be Liberal and National party policy that women and girls should be protected from unfair competition?

For a government that’s struggling to lift its primary vote, because its natural supporters are wondering what it actually stands for, this issue is a no-brainer.

If the PM really believes that people are sick of “walking on eggshells” lest they be “cancelled” over some thought crime, why not make the Chandler bill official government policy?