Family First's Jane Foreman says the report that a player born male has won a top goal scorer award in Victoria's premier knockout competition for women's football, while a player in that competition says many of them were too scared to go in for a tackle (Herald Sun, 30 August), is what happens when a sporting body is left to decide fairness for itself, and says Victoria's sport and women's ministers should now say whether they agree with it.
Mrs Foreman says the player has competed in Victoria's women's National Premier League in recent years, won the top goal scorer award this month and boasted about the win on social media. The player has also bragged on social media about "smoking these b--ches". Football Victoria says no complaint was lodged specifically in relation to the award, and it did not answer questions about the other concerns players have raised.
Former United States professional footballer Addison Steiner, 31, who now plays in Melbourne, said the player was "undeniably faster, stronger and more technical, out running some of the quickest players in the league". Ms Steiner, who says she supports the trans community, said the presence of biological males in female competitions cannot come at the cost of women and girls. Another player, who had been on the same team, said it was clear the player was "physically advantaged in speed and strength", and that "many players admitted being too scared to go in for tackles against them".
When that player took her concerns to Football Victoria she was told inclusion is the governing body's "foremost priority". Its chief executive, Dan Birrell, wrote to her that "there is no current requirement for born/biological sex disclosure", and that on strength and injury risk claimed that there are studies that have "placed these theories in doubt".
"A player in that league says many of them were too scared to go in for a tackle, and Football Victoria's answer is that inclusion is its foremost priority," said Mrs Foreman.
"A body that does not ask what sex a player is cannot protect women."
"This is not one bad decision by one code. Last year Netball Victoria ruled two transgender netballers could play and it took a local league to stop it. This year it is football, and once again the women who raised it are the ones being told nobody complained," said Mrs Foreman.
"Fairness is not one value to be balanced against inclusion. It is the only reason a women's competition exists. Take that away and you have not included anybody, you have abolished the women's game."
As Women's Forum Australia head of advocacy Stephanie Bastiaan has said, Football Victoria continuing to prioritise diversity and inclusion over fairness and safety in female sport is a serious failure of leadership. Mrs Foreman says the failure runs past one federation. Victoria has a Minister for Sport, a Minister for Community Sport and a Minister for Women and Gender Equality, and Victorian women are entitled to know whether any of the three agrees with Football Victoria that a player's sex is none of the competition's business.
Family First is calling on Premier Ben Carroll, Minister for Sport Steve Dimopoulos, Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence and Minister for Women and Gender Equality Gabrielle Williams to say publicly whether they support Football Victoria's position, to require every state sporting body receiving Victorian government funding to publish its eligibility rules for female competitions in full, and to answer the players who have raised safety concerns rather than leaving them to a governing body that says no complaint was lodged.
Family First is committed to restoring the biological definitions of male and female in Victorian legislation, to introduce legislative safeguards for female-only sporting categories, and to establish robust protections for women's single-sex spaces including refuges, prisons and health services. Mrs Foreman signed the Women's Pledge this month, in writing and before the vote.
Mrs Foreman says a top goal scorer award in women's football won by a player born male is further proof Victoria needs Family First's genuinely independent voice holding this government to account in the Legislative Council after November, because the girls getting up at 5am to train deserve a Parliament prepared to say plainly what a women's competition is.
