Equality advocates have blasted the prime minister, Scott Morrison, for backing a “divisive and unnecessary” push by Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler to allow sporting groups to exclude transgender people from single-sex sports.
Campaigning in the Tasmanian marginal seat of Lyons on Tuesday, Morrison said he thought Chandler’s proposed private member’s bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act was “terrific” and he had encouraged her to pursue it.
Under Chandler’s “save women’s sports” bill, which she introduced to the Senate earlier this month, changes would be made to the Sex Discrimination Act to “clarify” that the operation of single-sex sport on the basis of biological sex was not discriminatory.
While the bill has little chance of being debated in the House of Representatives before the election, Morrison said he supported the legislation, which has been criticised by equality advocates.
“I support it, as Claire knows. I think it’s a terrific bill and I’ve given her great encouragement,” Morrison said.
“Claire is a champion for women’s sport and I think she’s been right to raise these issues in the way that she has. Well done, Claire.”
But Charlie Burton, from Equality Tasmania, said the bill would strip transgender people of their “right to live as we are, casting us into an unequal, uncertain and unsafe status in the eyes of the law.”
Burton said transgender women had been playing women’s sport and accessing women’s services for many years without any of the problems predicted by Chandler.
“Tasmanian sporting organisations have been actively seeking guidance on how to be more inclusive, not less, with strong support from the Tasmanian government,” Burton told Guardian Australia.
“We reject attempts to sow fear and division about policies that have worked well and have made Tasmania a better place for everyone.”
Anna Brown, the chief executive of Equality Australia, said sporting groups had been working hard for decades to ensure inclusivity for trans and gender diverse people, saying “sport should be for everyone”.
“In supporting this cruel, divisive and unnecessary bill, the prime minister once again underestimates the community’s support for trans and gender diverse children,” Brown said.
“The Senate must act decisively and with the same conviction as their lower house colleagues by standing for the inclusion of trans kids by rejecting this bill in its entirety.”
Brown said that the Sex Discrimination Act already allowed for discrimination on the grounds of sex, gender identity or intersex status by excluding people from competing in sport, where strength, stamina and physique was relevant.
“Instead of considering how these exemptions could be narrowed, the Chandler bill would go further, and for the first time allow discrimination against children under the age of 12 years,” she said.
According to the bill’s explanatory memorandum, the legislation intends to “ensure that organisers are not limited in their ability to operate single-sex sport by the threat of complaints of unlawful discrimination”.
“The primary policy intent of the Bill is to acknowledge that categorisation by sex is a necessary and important mechanism to provide sporting participation and competitive opportunities for females.
“It seeks to ensure that women’s single-sex sport is protected and encouraged, and that a male person is not entitled to demand inclusion into women’s sport on the basis of gender identity.”
In introducing the bill, Chandler said that clubs faced the risk of legal action as the Sex Discrimination Act had “been used as a weapon” to pressure sporting organisations to allow males to play women’s sport.
The prime minister’s support for Chandler’s push comes after the Coalition’s recent failed attempt to legislate religious discrimination laws after attempts to ensure transgender students were protected from discrimination.
Five Liberal MPs crossed the floor to ensure the protection of gender non-conforming students under the Sex Discrimination Act, prompting the government to shelve its religious discrimination bill after a backlash from religious groups and faith-based schools.
Burton said the debate over the treatment of trans children that accompanied the religious discrimination bill had seen “overwhelming” public and parliamentary support for protecting young trans people from discrimination, suggesting Morrison was “out-of-step with a country that prides itself on a fair go for everyone.”
“In the past few weeks the prime minister has shown a complete lack of empathy for trans and gender diverse Australians and now he is using us as a political football.
“We completely reject the cynical abuse of trans people as a weapon in the prime minister’s political and electoral game playing.”
Brown also pointed to the “overwhelming outpouring of support”, including from within the Coalition, shown towards trans and gender diverse children during the debate on religious discrimination laws.
“We know an overwhelming majority of people in Australia believe that trans and gender diverse people deserve the same rights and protections as other Australians, a fact that the Prime Minister failed to understand when he refused to fulfil his promise to protect trans kids in religious schools during the Religious Discrimination Bill debate.”
North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman, one of the five MPs who crossed the floor against the wishes of Morrison, published a letter and drawing on Facebook on Monday from a young constituent thanking him for “crossing the floor for my trans bro”.
“After two weeks in Canberra coming home and finding this in my mail today meant the world to me,” Zimmerman said.
Morrison made the remarks in support of Chandler’s bill while campaigning in the eastern Tasmanian seat of Lyons, where he announced an $804m Antarctica package to be spent over the next decade.
The prime minister said the package ensured “Australia had eyes” on Antarctica, where China was becoming increasingly assertive.
“Where others who have different objectives to us, well, it’s an opportunity for us to be there and make sure that we’re protecting Antarctica from more exploitative interests,” he said.
Morrison also spoke about Russia’s incursion into Ukrainian territory, saying threats of violence were “being used to seek to advantage a nation’s position over others”.
“Russia should step back, it should unconditionally withdraw, back behind its own borders and stop threatening its neighbours,” Morrison said.
“It’s unacceptable, it’s unprovoked, it’s unwarranted, and Russia should understand that by seeking to invade another country, that this cannot advantage them, and it would seriously and significantly cost Russia.”
