‘It will rectify great harms’: Why one Liberal MP defied her own party

NSW Liberal MP Felicity Wilson labelled attacks on an equality bill which allows transgender people to update their birth certificates without undergoing gender-affirming surgery as “fearmongering” in an implied criticism of her own party.

The rebel MP defied her party on Wednesday by crossing the floor to support independent MP Alex Greenwich’s omnibus equality bill, which also made it easier for courts to issue parentage orders for families who have had children through overseas commercial surrogacy.

Liberal MP Felicity Wilson has supported Alex Greenwich’s equality bill.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Wilson on Wednesday dismissed a series of criticisms made against the bill by some of her colleagues, including the shadow attorney-general Alister Henskens, who argued it would allow “a person born with male genitalia” to have “full access to private women’s areas” including bathrooms and saunas after updating their birth certificate.

Though she did not refer specifically to Henskens, Wilson said claims the bill “will create risk for women are fearmongering”.

“This bill will not harm any person in NSW. In fact, as you’ve heard many times, this bill will affect very few people across NSW, but for those that it does affect, it will respond to and seek to rectify great harms that they experience,” she said.

Greenwich’s bill passed through parliament’s lower house on Wednesday and is expected to go through the upper house later this week after the Minns government backed a scaled-down version of the legislation.

The MP made significant concessions to his bill to ensure support, such as taking out proposed changes to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act which would have banned private schools from discriminating against gay or transgender students and teachers, including through expulsion or terminating their employment.

Premier Chris Minns on Wednesday described the changes as “long overdue” and “commonsense”, pointing out that NSW was the last state to allow transgender people to update their birth certificates without requiring surgery.

The government agreed to the changes after two caucus meetings and a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday at which some MPs raised concerns about changes to commercial surrogacy rules. Minns referred to those concerns, raised in caucus chiefly by upper house MP Stephen Lawrence, during a speech in parliament.

“Regardless of how we approach the issue, it is hardly the child’s fault. It is perfectly reasonable the legislation reflects that, if it is in the best interests of the child that a parenting order be issued, the courts are in a position to do that,” he said.

The Coalition’s resistance to the bill was notably mute. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman did not speak on the bill on Wednesday, instead issuing a statement on social media criticising Labor for putting the legislation “at the front of the parliament queue” during a cost-of-living crisis.

The chief antagonist was Henskens, who made a lengthy speech opposing it, including saying it “opens the door to a threat against the safety and protection of women”.

“After the passage of this legislation, a person born with male genitalia will be able to merely request that the name on their birth certificate be changed from a male name to a female name and then assume to be identified as a female” and enter women’s spaces, he said.

In her speech, Wilson seemed to refer to that critique when she said: “Women are too often unsafe in our society, and even more so in our own homes. But in all my life as a woman, I’ve never been asked to show my birth certificate, to enter a bathroom or to enter a sports change room.”

Henskens was also critical of Greenwich for circulating dozens of changes to the bill on Saturday and in the lead-up to the debate on Wednesday. Some of the concerns he initially raised about the legislation on Wednesday had already been removed from the bill. Greenwich accused Henskens of “playing politics” with the trans community.

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