Federal election 2022: ‘Cruel’: Andrews uses trans debate for foray into campaign

Daniel Andrews used the debate over transgender participation in sport to make his first foray into the election campaign.

Daniel Andrews speaks to reporters. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Brendan Beckett

Daniel Andrews has used the debate over transgender participation in sport to make his first foray into the election campaign, accusing the Morrison government of pursuing a “cruel” agenda “to deflect from the fact that they’ve been in power for almost a decade and they’ve done precisely nothing with it”.

The Victorian Premier’s comments come amid debate over the issue, sparked by the Prime Minister’s decision to stand by Liberal candidate for the NSW federal seat of Warringah Katherine Deves, despite calls from moderate NSW Liberals – led by state Treasurer Matt Kean – for her to be disendorsed.

Ms Deves has been forced to issue apologies over comments she made prior to her preselection, which included describing transgender children as “surgically mutilated and sterilised” and comparing her activism to standing up against the Holocaust.

Asked on Sunday for his response to Olympic champion Emma McKeon’s comments last week that it was unfair for “biologically male” swimmers to compete against female athletes, Mr Andrews said: “Well, who races against who at an elite, amateur or professional level is a matter for the code, and I think they’ve dealt with these issues in an inclusive and sensitive, and a comprehensive way. That’s at least the understanding that I have.”

“So whether that’s at Olympic or Commonwealth Games level, that kind of elite professional sport, I think that each of those codes have worked very hard to try and have a set of rules and a framework in place,” he said.

Asked whether he supported transgender children competing against cisgender children in school competitions, Mr Andrews launched into an attack on the federal government.

“What’s the problem we’re trying to fix here, because I’ve been in the parliament for 20 years, and I’ve never had a school community come to me and raise this issue,” he said.

“I never had a parent come to me, never had a teacher come to me and raise this issue.

“Let me be very clear about something: Trans kids are 15 times more likely to self-harm, 15 times. Now anyone who thinks that this debate, when no one can point to a problem … I don’t think this debate’s doing any of those young Victorians any good, or their parents.

“It’s not easy to be trans. There’s many, many challenges. There’s a lot of stigma. There’s a lot of prejudice. I don’t think that adding to that is particularly kind. I think it’s cruel in fact.”

Mr Andrews said the issue had been “dealt with” in elite and elite amateur sport.

“You’ve asked me about schools. If it’s your proposition, or anyone’s proposition that a trans kid should be told, ‘well you can sit this out and watch all your classmates’, who frankly would be unconcerned in the main by these sorts of issues, it seems to me that the adults in this debate are altogether more cruel than the kids, and that’s a damning indictment on those who are pushing this,” he said.

“What’s next? The trans kid can’t play a female role, the trans girl can’t play a female role in the school play? Like is this the biggest issue in our nation today? I don’t think it is, and I think only desperate people who are into wedge politics, who are trying to deflect from the fact that they’ve been in power for almost a decade and they’ve done precisely nothing with it, would push this.”