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Hanson accused Labor, the Liberals and the Greens of each refusing to “articulate the biological truth” about sex and gender, and named ACON as “the leading advocate of transgenderism in Australia”.

Pauline Hanson used her debut National Press Club address on Wednesday to take on the “transgender insurgency” she said is embedded across the Australian bureaucracy, also demanding the sacking of two senior human rights officials and the dismantling of the ideological apparatus driving the movement.

Delivering her first-ever Leaders Address to the NPC after nearly 30 years in federal politics, the One Nation leader warned that transgender ideology has “penetrated almost every regulatory authority”.

“This transgender campaign, where a man can become a woman because he simply feels that way, must be confronted,” Hanson declared.

She singled out Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody and Human Rights Commission head Hugh de Kretser as officials she would remove from office.

Taking On ACON

Hanson cited the argument of feminist icon Germaine Greer, made 15 years ago, that “sex is fundamentally tied to the body” and that biological males cannot become female through medical procedures.

Hanson repeated what she described as Greer’s “frequently quoted remark”: “Just because you lop off your penis and then wear a dress, doesn’t make you a woman.”

She summarised her own position in similar terms: that a woman must have female anatomy, and a person without a penis is not a man.

Hanson argued the logical consequence was clear: biological males identifying as female should not be permitted in women’s sport or women’s change rooms. Labor, the Liberals, and the Greens, she said, had each refused to “articulate the biological truth”.

Hanson singled out the AIDS Council of NSW — ACON — as “the leading advocate of transgenderism in Australia,” and pointed to its Australian Workplace Equity Index as a mechanism through which gender ideology is embedded in corporations, health regulatory bodies, and government offices including the Ombudsman.

“This nonsense must end,” she said.

The Daily Declaration has previously reported on ACON’s influence over Australia’s peak medical regulator AHPRA, and has covered the ACON–ABC alliance that ended when the national broadcaster resigned from ACON’s Pride in Diversity program earlier this year.

‘A Militant Force’

De Kretser, Hanson warned, was seeking expanded powers “to control the debate about what is a woman”. She described the broader transgender movement as a “militant force right throughout society,” drawing a direct parallel to militant Islam. Both ideologies, she argued, are “everywhere and seek to redefine humanity”.

She accused Labor of being “in bed” with the transgender movement, and said the average Australian remained unaware of the extent of ideological capture across government bodies as they are “too busy getting on with their lives”. She added that the movement was “explicitly subversive” in its infiltration of schools and amounted to “propaganda being imposed on kids in classrooms”.

Hanson’s NPC address comes as the debate over sex and gender identity reaches Australian courts. In May, the Full Federal Court dismissed Sall Grover’s appeal in Giggle v Tickle, ruling that sex is mutable under Australian law and doubling damages against Grover to $20,000. Grover has indicated she will seek leave to appeal to the High Court.

One Nation’s Position

Hanson was unambiguous in her stated aims: “This whole subversive transgender insurgency must be dismantled.”

She framed One Nation as the only party willing to provide, in her words, “the strenuous opposition that is needed,” including the sacking of Cody and de Kretser and the end of government bodies signing up to the Australian Workplace Equity Index.

“Australia deserves a voice in all this,” Hanson said. “Only One Nation will provide the strenuous opposition that is needed.”

Of those named by Hanson, none had responded publicly at time of publication. Greens leader Larissa Waters offered a broader response to the address, describing it as “incoherent hatred” that “offered nothing more than the same tired Islamophobia, transphobia, racism and protection racket for fossil fuels we’ve heard from her for decades.”

The Daily Declaration contacted ACON and the Australian Human Rights Commission for comment.

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