Women’s rights
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (16:37): (152) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Women, and it concerns the current sad state of public discourse on women’s rights. When I came into this Parliament in 2018 the last thing I thought I would have to defend was women’s rights. Those hard-fought battles for recognition were I thought largely won. But we have gone backwards, and now even making the same arguments is seen by some as prejudiced, hateful and an attack on other groups. This is absurd. I am a Liberal, and I believe that people can do, be, act, believe and speak however they want. That is their business, right up until they infringe the rights of others. Even for non-Liberals, I do not believe it is controversial. Women should have the right to play single-sex sport, to play safely and to compete fairly with other women. They should have the right to use toilets without people with penises. They should have the right to serve jail sentences without men who have committed violent offences against women. They should have the right to privacy, safety and dignity, especially those who have suffered trauma and abuse, largely by men, when they need refuges and shelters. This is fair, it is basic, it is just common sense. How did we ever move away from this? In part it is the debasement of language – the advent of ‘chest feeders’ and ‘people with cervixes’.
None of what I have said is aggressive or anti-trans. I restate my view that essentially people should be able to be and act as they wish as long as they respect the rights of others. Making rules and laws which protect those rights is not somehow discriminating against a whole group or somehow singling them out as potential offenders. Making rules to stop the bad behaviour of individuals does not stigmatise whole groups. Almost our entire legal system is based on this. Offenders are targeted, but we do not extend the absurdity of identity politics to make whole groups guilty. This is the logical conclusion of identity politics, and it is insidious. The worst irony, so horribly illustrated last weekend, is that even protest against this crazy situation is now labelled as antagonistic, aggressive prejudice. It is not just sports, shelters, toilets or jails. Women cannot now even have their own protest without that space being invaded and their safety, and in some cases their reputation, compromised. So the action I seek from the minister is a wholehearted endorsement of women’s right to protest and to have the opportunity to make their arguments against the appalling trends which have set back women’s rights so badly.