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Proposed LGBT reforms for New South Wales risks far-reaching unintended consequences for women and children, says Labor MLC Greg Donnelly. 

He is urging people to sign a petition on the New South Wales Parliament website that calls on members of the Legislative Council to vote against the Equality Bill introduced by Independent Alex Greenwich last August. 

The bill would alter 20 pieces of legislation in what Greenwich says is an effort to achieve equality and remove remaining discrimination against LGBT communities. 

Faith and education leaders from Christian, Muslim and Hindu traditions have opposed the bill, which would strip important protections for faith-based schools and religious institutions under the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act. 

Seismic Shift

Donnelly told The Catholic Weekly while he is concerned about that aspect of the bill, he is equally worried about its potential impact on women and girls. 

The bill would introduce sex self-identification laws, simplifying the requirements for changing a person’s legal sex on official documents, including birth certificates, to a mere administrative task. 

Donnelly says this would enable males to legally identify as females, access women-only spaces and remove protections for safety and girls’ and women’s sports. 

“In that respect particularly, it’s unquestionably one of the most significant pieces of proposed legislation I’ve seen in parliament,” he said. 

“That issue alone is a matter that all citizens of New South Wales should be concerned about, not only people of faith. 

“Both inside and outside parliament, there seems little appreciation of the profound nature of this bill. 

“If it were just one bill dealing with the part which deals with altering one’s birth certificate, that in itself is seismic as an issue. 

“Proponents of this are saying other states in Australia have introduced sex self-ID so New South Wales would simply follow the others.  

“But my position is that there is no good reason whatsoever to follow the others. New South Wales has the largest stake in the Commonwealth and needs to pause and have a good look at the implications of this and the way it is already playing out here in Australia and around the world.” 

The proposed changes would also allow children under the age of 16 to consent to gender-affirming medical treatment, such as puberty blockers, without their parents’ consent.

The bill would further liberalise prostitution laws and remove the current ban on access to international commercial surrogacy in the state, despite growing concerns about its potential for exploitation and trafficking of vulnerable women and children. 

High Risk

Advocacy group Women’s Forum Australia has called the bill “dystopian.” 

“These regressive reforms endanger, discriminate against, and/or commodify and exploit women and children, and in some cases, put at risk the rights and freedoms of NSW citizens,” it said in its inquiry submission. 

Women’s Forum Australia CEO Rachael Wong told The Catholic Weekly she has been contacted by parents throughout the country concerned about their daughters being forced to share school bathrooms and accommodation with male students who claim they are female. 

Overseas and in other Australian states, there have been “tragic” consequences of sex self-ID laws and policies, where women and girls have been forced to share intimate female-only spaces with males, and in some cases, have even been sexually assaulted, she said. 

The Legislative Assembly’s inquiry took no position on the bill, recommending in June it proceed to debate despite a community survey of 13,000 people showing 85 per cent of respondents in opposition. 

The committee also received 66 written submissions and heard from 44 witnesses over two days of public hearings. 

“Views put to the committee throughout the inquiry were quite polarised,” committee chair Clayton Barr wrote in the report.  

“The great bulk of participants either totally believed in, or were completely opposed to, the Equality Bill. By and large, the ‘middle ground’ was vacant.” 

Sign the online petition here. 

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Republished with thanks to The Catholic Weekly.