Samantha Maiden: Katherine Deves goes quiet after sparking debate about transgender women in sport

The PM refuses to cancel her. Senior Libs back her. But the candidate who sparked the debate about trans women in sport has gone quiet, writes Samantha Maiden.

Scott Morrison has bravely declared he won’t allow women’s sports warrior and candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves to be “silenced”.

Strange then, that the Liberal Party appears to have banned Ms Deves from conducting media interviews or attending public events.

As the storm rages about her comments surrounding “mutilated” trans children, the only glimpses of the candidate have been disappearing into garages as she was shielded from cameras.

Has she cancelled herself? Only time will tell. She was a last-minute cancellation from a candidate’s debate in her electorate this week.

Articulate, photogenic and with friends in high places, ever since she burst on to the national stage just over a week ago, the transgender issue has really exploded in the national conversation.

Warringah candidate Katherine Deves has a dress dropped off at her Manlyvale home, Sydney. Jane Dempster/The Australian.

Previously, it had not emerged as a mainstream issue beyond the Prime Minister’s rejection of “gender whisperers” in schools a few years ago and conservative senators asking officials to define “what is a woman”.

So, if you’re wondering how Ms Deves emerged out of nowhere into the national campaign as a culture warrior, and why some Liberals are insisting the Prime Minister dump her, it’s best to start at the beginning.

Two years ago, Ms Deves opened a Twitter account.

It managed to run up an impressive 6000 tweets in two years about the transgender issue – that’s more than eight tweets a day, every day, seven days a week.

Soon there was an Instagram account and YouTube videos.

In one post, the mother of three complained about feeling “triggered” by the rainbow pride flag despite having family members who were gay accusing trans activists of wrecking the movement.

In another, she described trans teenagers as being “surgically mutilated”.

She also compared her work to that of the Nazi resistance.

“This will go down in history as akin to the grudge trials of the Third Reich,’’ she wrote.

“I do not like to invoke Nazism but the parallels are remarkable and deeply sinister.”

Then there was a website – Save Women’s Sport – that piggybacked off a similar movement in New Zealand.

On October 12, 2020, The Australian newspaper reported Ms Deves had set up the new group, and just a few weeks later, it was being talked up in parliament by Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler.

Then on March 28, 2022, Katherine Deves nuked her social media accounts and emerged as a Liberal Party candidate.

The Liberals’ preferred candidate to contest the federal seat of Warringah, barrister Jane Buncle, had withdrawn her nomination after the NSW Liberals couldn’t get its act together to finalise candidates.

At first, Ms Deves was rejected because she had only been a member of the Liberal Party for six months, not long enough to be a candidate.

But after a complicated legal tussle, the Prime Minister was granted the power to make a “captain’s pick.”

He picked Ms Deves. And he was so delighted to spruik her candidacy that he started talking about her during the opening days of the campaign.

That prompted journalists to use the internet archive Wayback Machine to find her deleted old tweets and all hell promptly broke loose.

There were multiple public apologies for her “language” and a call on Good Friday from NSW Treasurer Matt Kean for her to be disendorsed or quit.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet argued the debate needs to be had but it has to be respectful.

“But ultimately, as well, we in public, as politicians in the media, have an obligation in these areas of debate, to participate in a way that is sensitive, particularly in areas that are incredibly delicate and there are strong views on either side of the debate,’’ he said.

“And I think that’s the point that Matt was trying to make and I completely respect it.”

Asked if Mr Kean was sabotaging the Prime Minister in the middle of an election campaign, he rejected the claim.

“I don’t believe so,’’ he said. “What I would say is that most fair-minded Australians look at those issues on face value and make their own assessments.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister appears to have found his groove in dealing with the out-of-control debate, arguing Australians are over “cancelling people” for speaking their mind.

“But what I won’t allow, what I won’t allow, is for those who are seeking to cancel Katherine simply because she has a different view to them on the issue of women and girls in sport,” the Prime Minister said.

“I think Australians are getting pretty fed up with having to walk on eggshells every day because they may or may not say something one day that’s going to upset someone.

“Others might want to cancel her. Others might want to cancel other Australians for standing up for things they believed in. I am not going to have a partnership with them.”

What does Deves think?

For now, beyond the odd Facebook account defiantly declaring she’s “not going anywhere”, that remains a mystery.

Originally published as Samantha Maiden: Katherine Deves goes quiet after sparking debate about transgender women in sport