Morrison doubles down in defence of Katherine Deves, says she has agreed to be more sensitive

The PM has again defended controversial candidate Katherine Deves, revealing they have come to an agreement - but dodged questions on his own views.

Scott Morrison has defended Liberal candidate Katharine Deves again after she declared surrogacy was “a human rights violation” and a “vanity project”, insisting she’s agreed to a more “sensitive approach in the future”.

Asked in Alice Springs whether he agreed with Ms Deves that surrogacy - where a woman agrees to carry the child for another couple - was an abuse of human rights, the Prime Minister did not directly answer the question about his own views.

“Her comments were broad to that and weren’t limited to single sex relationships or anything else like that,’’ the Prime Minister said.

“But I’ve made a number of comments about this matter. And the issue is fundamentally about women and girls in school. Katherine Deves has made her comments about comments made in the past, and she knows that a sensitive approach is required in the future.”

Listen to news.com.au’s Political Editor Samantha Maiden discussing the latest on Katherine Deves in our daily news podcast I’ve Got News For You here, or press play below:

Ms Deves’s original comments were in reaction to a post about US politician Pete Buttigieg announcing he and his husband, Chasten, were now the parents of two children.

Subsequently, media reports suggested the children were adopted and not the product of surrogacy at all.

The Prime Minister also defended Ms Deves’s decision to ban the media from a publicly advertised politics in the pub event on Friday night.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Ms Deves understood she needed to share her views more sensitively in future. Picture: Jason Edwards

Liberal MP Jason Falinksi told Sky News Australia media were not allowed because Ms Deves felt “it could turn into a bit of a barney” if journalists were present.

At the press conference in Alice Springs, LNP candidate Jacinta Price, a supporter of Ms Deves, said the substantive issue she was raising was important.

“Well, let’s get this straight. I support women and girls in sport. I’ve been a captain of several AFL football teams here in Central Australia. I mean girls here put on a hard hit playing AFL but if you have to be up against a bloke that’s potentially life threatening,” she said.

“And it is up to the media to understand that being pro-women is not anti-trans as far as I’m concerned.

“Yeah, her language on standing up for women’s rights, I agree with.”

LNP candidate Jacinta Price also came out in defence of Ms Deves, suggesting playing against a transgender woman in an AFL game could be”life-threatening”. Picture: Jason Edwards

Asked about her comments regarding a link between transvestism and serial killers, Ms Price said this was a matter for the Liberal candidate to answer.

“Well, I guess you would have to take that up with Katherine Deves,” Ms Price said.

Ms Deves was on Sunday urged for a second time to take up an offer to visit Sydney’s Jewish Museum as controversy continues to rage over her references to the transgender community and Nazism.

The candidate for Warringah likened her push to stop transgender women from competing in women’s sports to standing up to the Nazis during the Holocaust in an interview in 2021, and has made reference to “the rainbow reich” in since-deleted social media posts.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Darren Bark and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim told news.com.au Ms Deves should reflect on her past comments.

“All of these Nazi analogies are historically inaccurate and fundamentally misconceived,” he said.

“Next week the Jewish community will commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, highlighting the contrast between the free and peaceful life we enjoy in Australia and the life of fear imposed on everybody who lived under the murderous rule of the Nazis.

“If the moral imperative of ‘never again’ is to have genuine meaning, it must begin with a deep understanding of the difference between the blessings of freedom and the horrors of tyranny.”

News.com.au understands Ms Deves’ minders have rejected the visit to the Jewish Museum, angering some in the community.

Katherine Deves has been invited to visit the Jewish Museum in Sydney for a second time, with Jewish leaders urging her to reflect on her words. Picture: KHAPGG/Backgrid/news.com.au

Ms Deves has previously linked her anti-trans activism to standing up to Nazis, and referenced her detractors as the “rainbow reich”. Picture: Kennedy Awards

“We repeat our invitation to Ms Deves to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum, to hear from survivors first hand about what that difference consists of in real life, and to join the rest of the community in saying, ‘Never again,’ he said.

On Saturday, news.com.au revealed Ms Deves described a leading gay newspaper as “the Rainbow Reich”.

In the latest of multiple references to the Holocaust in her online attacks on the trans community, the Liberals endorsed candidate for Warringah made the comments on her now deleted Twitter account.

“Pink News?,” she wrote.

“Bahahaha. That’s just a mouthpiece for misogynists and the Rainbow Reich.”

The history of the nation-state known as the German Reich is commonly divided into three periods: German Empire (1871–1918) Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Nazi Germany (1933–1945).

Katherine Deves said contributors to a leading gay newspaper were part of the “Rainbow Reich”.

It has also been revealed in documents first reported by The Saturday Telegraph that Ms Deves told the Liberal Party in a nomination form that she has never posted anything online that was offensive in nature.

The documents reveal Ms Deves is not currently employed but did work as a lawyer for a NSW firm from September 2021 to January this year. She previously worked as a paralegal.

She lists all her social media accounts to the Liberal Party on the from dated March 10, before her entire history was wiped just days before Scott Morrison shocked the Liberal Party by announcing her as a “captains pick”.

Ms Deves told the Liberal Party in a nomination form that she has never posted anything online that was offensive in nature.

Ms Deves also disclosed in her party nomination form her user names for social media accounts that she had held along with her membership of the Coalition for Biological Reality, the Feminist Legal Clinic and women and girls sex-based rights group IWD Brisbane-Meanjin.

The Prime Minister, who is resisting calls to dump Ms Deves, insisted the comments are “in the past.”

In fact, all of the social media posts were the last two years and many were less than a year ago.

They include claims surrogacy is “a human rights violation” that trans teenagers are “surgically mutilated” and that there’s a link between transvestism and sexual predators, even serial killers.

Deves Protest - Election 2022

The nomination form also confirms her candidacy was proposed by barrister Bridie Nolan, the now wife of her opponent Zali Steggall’s ex-husband.

While some have described Ms Deves as conservative, in fact she is a self-described TERF – trans exclusionary radical feminist.

The term “The Rainbow Reich” is often used in TERF online communities to suggest the trans movement is totalitarian in nature and is destroying the LGBTI community.

Originally published as Morrison doubles down in defence of Katherine Deves, says she has agreed to be more sensitive