Former anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks now subject of discrimination complaint

Former anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks is now the subject of a discrimination complaint.

Former anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks. Picture: Sam Rosewarne.

A former anti-discrimination commissioner, who controversially accepted a complaint against Catholic bishops, is herself the subject of anti-discrimination complaints taken by two feminists.

Two members of the women’s rights group, Women Speak Tasmania, have lodged federal and state anti-discrimination complaints against former Tasmanian anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks.

Both complaints relate to criticism of WST by Ms Banks, who in an email to members of a human rights group described WST’s opposition to transgender reforms as “hateful” and cautioned against allowing the group to speak at a forum last week.

Ms Banks, a prominent supporter of transgender reforms, denied seeking to have WST spokeswomen Bronwyn Williams and Isla MacGregor banned from speaking at the forum, organised by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

However, the event was cancelled after her intervention, and in a complaint to Equal Opportunity Tasmania — the body Ms Banks previously headed — Miss Williams and Ms MacGregor accuse her of “no platforming” them.

“Ms Banks has encouraged (the league) … to discriminate against me and Miss Williams on the basis of our political activity and our political belief and affiliation,” Miss MacGregor writes in the complaint.

“We also believe Ms Banks has humiliated, intimidated, insulted, ridiculed and offended us on the basis of our ‘gender identity’.

“We do not identify as ‘non-trans women’, but as biological women. And Ms Banks and the group with which she is associated, Transforming Tasmania, insist that anyone who denies the proposition that ‘transwomen are women’ is a transphobic bigot.”

Ms Banks, who as commissioner sparked a national debate after ruling in 2015 that Catholic bishops had a case to answer over an anti-gay marriage booklet, said she was yet to receive any detailed information about the complaints.

“As you know I have always supported people’s right to use the accessible and confidential processes available under both federal and Tasmanian discrimination law,” Ms Banks said.

“I look forward to responding if necessary to one or other of the statutory authorities. I am unable to comment further given the lack of information about the basis of the complaints and my continuing commitment to the confidentiality of these processes.”

Her email to organisers of last week’s cancelled human rights forum warned that giving WST “a platform for their hateful views ... will be seen by many in the LGBTIQ community as an endorsement of those views”.

However, she later told The Australian she merely wanted to ensure their views were balanced against others, and was not seeking to deny them a platform.

Miss Williams and Ms MacGregor have lobbied against nation-first legislation passed by Tasmania’s lower house that would allow people to change their official gender simply by statutory declaration.

They argue the change, combined with extending hate speech protections to cover ‘gender expression’, could threaten the sanctity of women’s services and safe places; a claim rejected by Ms Banks and other reform advocates.