Family First National Director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton has welcomed Opposition Leader Angus Taylor's commitment to restore biological sex to Commonwealth discrimination law, but says the Liberal Party owes Australians an explanation for why it failed to act during nine years in government.
Mr Taylor has pledged that a future Coalition government will amend the Sex Discrimination Act to define biological sex and protect single-sex spaces for women and girls.
"This is terrific and long overdue. Angus Taylor is right: biological sex is real and women and girls deserve sex-based rights," Mr Shelton said.
"But where was this courage when the Coalition actually had power?
"Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison governed for nine years while repeated warnings were sounded about the erosion of women's spaces, girls' sport and freedom of speech. Yet they repeatedly defended radical gender ideology and rejected attempts by Senator Clair Chandler and then Liberal candidate Katherine Deves to fix the law.
"Now, only after women have been dragged through courts and tribunals, publicly vilified and forced to spend enormous amounts of money defending what should be self-evident, they have finally discovered the problem."
Mr Shelton said the Coalition could not pretend it was merely an innocent bystander to the development of Australia's gender laws.
In 2013, Liberal senator and then shadow attorney-general George Brandis told Parliament that the Coalition supported amendments adding "gender identity" to the Sex Discrimination Act and said they represented the adoption of Coalition policy.
"That history matters," Mr Shelton said.
"People such as Sall Grover, Kirralie Smith, Dr Jillian Spencer, Jasmine Sussex and others have paid an enormous personal price for challenging gender ideology.
"They should never have been left to fight these battles virtually alone while politicians who had the power to change the law looked the other way."
Mr Shelton said the treatment of Victorian MP Moira Deeming demonstrated the depth of the Liberal Party's problem.
"Moira spoke publicly about the importance of women's sex-based rights and single-sex spaces and was subsequently expelled from the Victorian Liberal parliamentary party following the Let Women Speak controversy.
"She later successfully sued then-Liberal leader John Pesutto for defamation arising from his response to the rally.
"Moira is now with Family First. The extraordinary irony is that Angus Taylor is today advocating a position on biological sex for which people like Moira were treated as political outcasts."
Mr Shelton said the High Court's refusal yesterday to grant Sall Grover special leave to appeal made parliamentary action urgent. The decision leaves standing the Full Federal Court ruling in the Tickle v Giggle litigation.
"Family First is outraged that Sall has been denied the opportunity to take her case further in the High Court.
"But the message for politicians could not be clearer: Parliament must now do its job.
"Courts interpret the laws politicians give them. If the law no longer adequately protects women's sex-based rights, Parliament must fix it.
"Mr Taylor should now demand immediate bipartisan action rather than asking Australians to wait until some future Coalition government.
"The Commonwealth should define woman, man and sex according to biological reality and explicitly protect female-only sport, toilets, change rooms, refuges, prisons and other legitimate single-sex services and spaces.
"But reform should go further.
"Family First wants Commonwealth legislation to protect Australians from state anti-discrimination and anti-vilification regimes that punish people for expressing lawful views about biological sex and gender.
"Freedom to say that men are men, women are women and that biological sex matters should not depend upon which Australian state you live in.
"Paul Kelly's recent writing on the Liberal Party's loss of conviction goes to the heart of its malaise.
"Angus Taylor's new-found courage is welcome. But conviction means acting before the cultural tide turns, not afterwards.
"The Liberals need to explain why they failed to act when they had nine years in government - and why Australians should trust them to act next time."
