Health boss Brendan Murphy unable to define ‘woman’ in Senate Estimates

Australia’s top health bureaucrat has been slammed for being unable to answer a simple question in awkward scenes during Senate Estimates.

Australia’s top health bureaucrat has been slammed for refusing to provide a definition of the word “woman”.

Liberal Senator Alex Antic posed the question to Health Secretary Brendan Murphy during Senate Estimates on Wednesday, after last week failing to get a response from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

“Can someone please provide me with a definition of what a woman is?” he asked.

The question was met with uncomfortable silence.

“Department of Health? Definition of a man, definition of a woman? Anyone? Professor Murphy?” Senator Antic said.

Senator Alex Antic asking the difficult questions 🤣

The Aust. Dept. of Health refused to define what a woman is!

They took the question on notice 🤦‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/gDdbmsJ9gm

— Kat A 🌸 (@SaiKate108) April 6, 2022

Dr Murphy replied, “Look, I think there are a variety of definitions …”

Senator Antic suggested he provide “just a simple one”.

“I think perhaps to give a more fulsome answer we should take that on notice,” Dr Murphy continued.

“You’re going to take on notice the question of what a woman is?” the Senator said.

“No, well there a variety – it’s a very, it’s a very … it’s a very contested space at the moment, Senator,” Dr Murphy said.

“I mean there are obviously biological definitions but there are definitions in terms of how people identify themselves, so we’re happy to provide our working definition on notice.”

Senator Antic said, “It’s not just that a woman was born a woman? This is hilarious. I’ve only been here two years, that’s the best thing I’ve seen thus far.”

Dr Brendan Murphy asked to take the question on notice.

The Health Department has been contacted for comment.

The question “what is a woman” has been popularised by conservatives in the United States, who claim proponents of left-wing gender theory are unable to provide a simple answer.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a woman is “an adult female human being”.

Matt Walsh from The Daily Wire has frequently posed the question during debates, including on a recent episode of Dr Phil featuring two transgender activists.

Walsh last month announced an upcoming book and documentary, both titled What is a Woman?, about the issue.

I have been all over the globe on a secret mission to finally get an answer to the question of our generation.

I managed to get into a room with some of the leading “experts” in the world.

Soon their answers (and non-answers) will be revealed. pic.twitter.com/pKeT2bgiKc

— Dr. Matt Walsh, Women’s Studies Scholar (@MattWalshBlog) March 24, 2022

US President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was also asked to provide a definition by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn during a recent confirmation hearing.

“Can I provide a definition? No. I can’t. I’m not a biologist,” Judge Jackson replied.

Speaking to 2GB on Thursday, Senator Antic said it was “utterly ludicrous to suggest there isn’t a single definition”.

“That definition is an adult human female, a biological woman – why can’t they say it?” he said.

“I think people like Dr Murphy, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I wonder whether secretly he also thinks it’s ludicrous but he’s concerned about the backlash amongst the rank and file.”

Host Ben Fordham said he had a “feeling that five years ago, there would have been a very quick answer but these days people are afraid to answer that question”.

“I think that’s exactly the point to make here,” Senator Antic said.

“In one sense you don’t want to attack the man. It’s more an issue of showing how far the insidious creep of radical gender theory has drifted through our institutions – it is endemic.”

Liberal Senator Alex Antic said it was ‘utterly ludicrous’.

Sky News host Rita Panahi slammed Dr Murphy for his “dumbfounded” response to a simple question “a child could answer”.

“These people have no qualms about imposing draconian restrictions like closing Australia’s borders, even to Australian citizens, to prevent the spread of a virus, but they are too scared to tell you what a woman is,” Panahi said on her Wednesday show.

“No longer can we pretend that the influence of this insidious radical gender theory is only evident in the UK and US. It has taken hold right here in Australia to such an extent that senior health bureaucrats are too terrified to answer that simple question, what is a woman.”

Senator Antic again posed the question to representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday.

DFAT Secretary Kathryn Campbell replied that she was “not sure, I haven’t heard that question before”, before deferring to Deputy Secretary Kathy Klugman.

“Senator Antic, do we have a definition of woman?” Ms Klugman said.

“In relation to... no, I don’t think we do. If you’re talking about us as a department of government, our approach is consistent with and governed by the Australian Public Service standards and rules – I’m not aware of any standards and rules going to that question in particular. If you’re talking about the support we provide internationally for gender programming, it hasn’t come up.”

Senator Antic replied that it was “obviously relevant”, citing instances of transgender women attempting to flee Ukraine being returned to combat zones.

Transgender acceptance in Ukraine is not widespread, and changing legal documents to match gender requires a long process with psychiatric examinations. CBS News spoke with one woman in Kyiv who is now battling a "war within a war" amid Russia's invasion https://t.co/DJ6vFwmLuRpic.twitter.com/7Qp4eTCGMt

— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 1, 2022

“I suppose we’d be thinking about in what context a definition would be used,” Ms Campbell said.

“You’ve quite rightly raised some issues about people who may identify as female but may biologically be male being returned, I assume because of conscription laws in Ukraine. So we have not turned our mind to that definition, we can take that on notice and consider that matter.”

Senator Antic has cultivated a following among conservatives in the United States, appearing several times on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

Last year, the outspoken critic of vaccine mandates was detained at Adelaide Airport and locked up in a quarantine hotel after refusing to disclose his vaccination status upon returning home to South Australia.

At the time, Scott Morrison revealed he was “surprised”, saying he believed the Senator was double-vaxxed and noting “he didn’t correct me”.

“I’m disappointed that that was unclear,” the Prime Minister said.

“And I’m glad that it’s been resolved. It was certainly my understanding that he’d been double vaccinated. And I had discussed vaccinations and made it very clear that that’s what I understood him to be, double vaccinated. So I was surprised [he was quarantined].”

Senator Antic has not since clarified his vaccination status.