Senator’s sport gender laws push ‘unwanted’, say opponents

The Tasmanian government does not support a bill to allow the exclusion of transgender athletes from women’s sport despite a push from a Tasmanian senator. HAVE YOUR SAY >>

The Tasmanian government does not support a bill to allow the exclusion of transgender athletes from women’s sport, Premier Peter Gutwein says.

Liberal Senator for Tasmania Claire Chandler has proposed changes to federal discrimination laws which would allow sporting codes to discriminate against transgender athletes.

Opponents say the legislation is unwanted and unnecessary and Mr Gutwein said his government did not support the proposal.

“I think we have an inclusive society and I think the way that we manage sport in Tasmania is a reflection of society,” he said.

“I don’t believe that there’s a need for this bill but that’s a matter for Claire and for federal parliament.”

The state government also opposed the federal government’s religious freedom bill, which would have overridden Tasmania’s anti-discrimination laws, and Mr Gutwein said he did not want that happening in future either.

Senator Chandler said her bill advanced a simple proposition.

“My Save Women’s Sport Bill simply asks males not to play in female sport, and makes sure volunteers and local clubs don’t face legal action if they offer single-sex women’s sport,” she said.

“My bill poses one simple question to parliamentarians: Do you agree that women and girls have the right to play single-sex sport?”

On Tuesday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison praised the bill, which will not go to a debate or vote before the Federal election.

Former Liberal state MP and Speaker of the House of Assembly Sue Hickey crossed the floor of state parliament to back reforms to laws affecting transgender people.

“I believe Senator Chandler’s bill represents all that is evil with the hard right of the Liberal Party,” she said.

“It’s a divisive Bill discriminating against a vulnerable cohort of our community.

“We should be encouraging as governments to get people united, not to separate and divide. “I find this an unnecessary, horrid bill that deserves to be thrown in the bin.”

Federal independent MP for Clark Andrew Wilkie said he would oppose the bill if it came to a vote.

“The recent government attack on trans people is plain wrong,” he said.

“Everyone has the right to be who they are, and for them to be equal with everyone else. It’s as simple as that.

“I won’t support Claire Chandler’s Bill, in particular, if it comes the House of Representatives for a range of reasons, for example that transgender women have been playing women’s sport for years in Tasmania without controversy.”

Does proposed gender sport laws push actually have support?

PROPOSED laws to make it harder for transgender people to participate in sport were unwanted, unnecessary and divisive, a coalition of MPs and community activists said on Wednesday.

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Claire Chandler’s bill to allow transgender athletes to be banned from women’s sport won support from Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday.

On ABC radio on Wednesday morning, Senator Chandler was unable to say which Tasmanian sporting codes wanted the change.

Senator Claire Chandler. Picture: Richard Jupe

“I’m not going to get into specifics here,” she said saying she’d been contacted by many who supported her cause to make sport “fairer and safe”.

“It’s not fair or safe for female sporting competitors to be competing with males,” she said, citing examples from the United States.

Labor MP Ella Haddad, Greens leader Cassy O’Connor, independent MP Kristie Johnston and Glenorchy councillor Sue Hickey joined community members to oppose the legislation.

They said that if Senator Chandler wanted to help women, there was plenty left to do in the fight to reduce violence and harassment and to reduce inequality.

Charlie Burton from Equality Tasmania said the legislation was not supported by the community.

“Tasmanian women stand shoulder to shoulder with their trans sisters and repudiate attempts to exclude them from women’s sports and women’s services,” Dr Burton said.

“Tasmania, partly because of our strong anti-discrimination laws, is a fair and inclusive society and we repudiate and reject the politics of fear and division.”

Equality Tasmania spokesman, Charlie Burton speaks to the media in Hobart on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.

The CEO of LGBTIQ+ support and advocacy service Working it Out Lynn Jarvis said the change was not being driven by Tasmanian sporting groups.

“Overwhelmingly the message we get from sporting clubs is that they want to know how to include, not how to exclude,” Dr Jarvis said.

“We have not had one sporting association approach us with any sense that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.”

And Former Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Robin Banks said that the law as it stood allowed for mens’ and women’s sporting competitions to be conducted legally.

“Senator Chandler’s bill is a legislative solution to a non-existent problem,” she said.

“She has argued that it’s about supporting equality for girls and women in sport. The Sex Discrimination Act already permits that. This is not needed, this piece of legislation.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the push to reduce participation in sports was at odds with community values.

“Tasmania has a proud reputation as an inclusive, open-hearted state.

“People like Clare Chandler and the organisers of the meeting here on Saturday are nasty, narrow-minded people who are hurting our fellow Tasmanians and it has to stop.”

Senator Chandler is the keynote speaker at an event billed “Save Women’s Sport at Hobart Town Hall on Saturday which is expected to attract a counterdemonstration from opponents of the push.

Asked about the issue at a media conference yesterday, Liberal Minister Roger Jaensch said the state government did not support the bill.

“My personal view is the same as position as the Tasmanian Government: we want all sporting organisations in Tasmania to be places that are safe and inclusive and fair for all participants.”

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