Australia Urged to Mirror NZ in Safeguarding Women's Sport

Family First is calling on the Albanese Government to follow New Zealand's and scrap "woke" transgender guidelines that put girls and women at risk and undermine the fairness of female sport. New Zealand's Sport Minister, Mark Mitchell, has directed Sport NZ to remove its controversial 2022 transgender inclusion guidelines from its website and cease all work on gender policy in community sport. The guidelines, which encouraged sporting bodies to allow males who identify as female to compete in women's sport, have been rightly abandoned after public pressure and a courageous stand from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters. Peters rightly stated: "The state has no place in people's bedrooms – and biological males have no place in women's sports." Family First wholeheartedly agrees. "It would be embarrassing and grossly unfair for Australia to be sending biological males to compete against women at the Olympic Games," said Family First National Director Lyle Shelton. "Enough is enough. Politicians from both Labor and Liberal parties can no longer ignore the harm the LGBTIQA+ political agenda is doing to fairness, safety and common sense. "New Zealand has done the right thing by standing up for girls and women. Why is Australia still silent?" In 2021, New Zealand made global headlines when male-born athlete Laurel Hubbard competed in the women's Olympic weightlifting event. This decision rightly sparked international concern and raised fundamental questions about fairness and safety. Now, New Zealand has turned the page. Australia must do the same. Family First calls on Sport Minister Anika Wells and Shadow Sport Minister Anne Ruston to immediately restore integrity to women's competitions. "Women and girls deserve their own sporting categories — based on biological sex — not the dictates of radical gender ideology," Shelton said. The LGBTIQA+ political agenda has gone too far. It is time for Australia to stop sacrificing women's rights at the altar of identity politics.