Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sex-Based Rights) Bill 2026

restoring clarity to the Sex Discrimination Act

So many Australians are tired of being told they can’t say what they know to be true. That a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That sex is biological. That women’s rights, and men’s for that matter, should not have to disappear because the law became unclear. That female sport must remain fair and safe for women and girls. That parents should be able to expect privacy and safety for their daughters.

why this Bill is needed

The Federal Court decision involving Sall Grover and Roxanne Tickle has made urgent parliamentary action even more important.

For many Australians, this case has highlighted a serious conflict in law.

The Sex Discrimination Act, and the amendments implemented by the Gillard Government in 2013, have created a conflict that allows the rights of women to be usurped.

The Parliament created this problem, and the Parliament should fix it with clear and workable laws.

About the Bill

On Monday 25 May, I will introduce the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sex-Based Rights) Bill 2026 into the House of Representatives as a Private Member’s Bill.

I have been working on this Bill for several months and it has been on the House of Representatives Notice Paper for over six weeks.

More than a year ago, I made a commitment to my party members in the electorate of Lyne that I would introduce a Bill to reinstate the biological definition of “man” and “woman” in my first term as an MP.

What the Bill does

This Bill seeks to fix the ambiguity around “sex” and “gender identity” that the Parliament created in its 2013 amendments.

The Bill inserts a definition of sex that is biological and binary.

It restores the definition of man and woman that were removed in 2013.

It introduces explicit protection for services, activities and spaces exclusively for women, such as:

prisons
domestic violence shelters
sports fields
toilets
women’s only gyms
women’s only online apps

Balancing rights clearly

Unlike more recent attempts to amend the Sex Discrimination Act, this Bill does not fully roll back the 2013 amendments.

The changes will continue to provide transgender Australians with protection from discrimination, but not at the expense of women.

Every Australian deserves dignity, safety and respect.

But women and girls deserve certainty that sex-based protections in law mean something in practice, including on the sporting field, in women’s only gyms, women’s only online apps, women’s prisons and women’s domestic violence shelters.

The Parliament has a responsibility to balance rights clearly, not leave Australians to fight these issues through the courts.