16 Sept 2026 – One hundred women’s organisations, LGBTIQ+ groups, unions, disability groups and mental health advocates have united to oppose proposals to redefine ‘sex’ under Australia’s anti-discrimination laws, warning that doing so would put longstanding protections for trans and intersex people, as well as women, at risk.
The letter comes a day after a Coalition Bill seeking to rewrite the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) was voted down in the Senate for the second time.
Similar attempts to amend the Act have also been made by a Nationals MP and One Nation.
The open letter was signed by organisations including the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance (AMWA), Victorian Trades Hall Council, Australian Services Union, Fair Agenda, ACON, National Foundation for Australian Women, Women With Disabilities Australia, Equality Australia, Women's Electoral Lobby and Women's Legal Services Australia.
Sent to all federal MPs, the letter urges them to reject any changes that would redefine “sex” in the SDA or remove gender identity as a protected attribute, warning that such changes would undermine essenital protections against discrimination.
“(It) would strip protections from transgender Australians and weaken safeguards for women more broadly. It would render entire groups of people invisible in law and trigger a cascade of damaging consequences,” the letter states.
“For decades, Australian governments have recognised transgender people in law and allowed amendments to identity documents. These protections have coexisted with women’s rights without evidence of safety issues or systemic failures.”
The letter also says such reforms ignore the reality of people born with variations of sex characteristics, are unworkable in practice and would lead to increased scrutiny of people’s bodies and appearances in workplaces, schools, and when accessing everyday services and facilities.
Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown:
"Changing the meaning of ‘sex’ in the SDA doesn't solve a problem - it creates one. It would weaken protections for all women, strips rights from trans women, and leave Australia more divided than before.
"The Coalition’s Bill won't make women safer or more equal. It will create more division, more uncertainty and more harm, while undermining decades of progress towards a fairer Australia."
Dr Gemma Killen, Executive Director of the Working with Women Alliance:
“The SDA is the cornerstone of gender equality in Australia, and we do not want to see it weakened. We don’t want a situation where women are judged as ‘not female enough’ to deserve protection or access to women-only spaces just because they might look or sound different to the feminine stereotype.”
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie:
“Everyone deserves to access services, workplaces and everyday life with dignity, safety and freedom from discrimination.
“ACOSS strongly opposes any attempt to weaken the protections of the SDA and the rights of transgender, intersex and gender diverse people, who already face disproportionate discrimination and exclusion.
“We caution political leaders against rhetoric and actions that fuel hate and division. We all have a collective responsibility to keep our communities safe and protect basic human rights.”
Wil Strake, Assistant Secretary at the Victorian Trades Hall Council:
“Some politicians love to use our trans and gender diverse comrades to distract from their lack of vision for Australia.
“The reality is that attempts to weaken anti-discrimination laws impact all of us and our right to live safely and freely. The Union movement will always stand in solidarity with trans and gender diverse people in their fight for respect and dignity.”
Sally Moyle, Chair of the National Foundation for Australian Women:
“For generations, feminists have challenged the idea that there is only one way to be a woman. By imposing a narrow definition of womanhood, this Bill risks reviving the very stereotypes feminism has spent decades dismantling, reducing women to their reproductive biology. It strikes at the heart of gender equality and weakens the legal protections that benefit all women."
Priscilla Brice, CEO National Mental Health Consumer Alliance:
"Redefining “sex” in the Act or removing gender identity as a protected attribute would add to the compounding discrimination already faced by LGBTQIA+ people. We know that discrimination does not occur in isolation, and mental health consumers experience the compounding impact of gender, sexuality other identities alongside psychosocial disability. We are joining the call to not leave entire groups of people invisible to the law."
Kay Anastassiadis Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) National Chair:
“WEL sees the proposed amendments to the SDA as regressive in the extreme. Seeking to define men and women through their supposed biological and sexual characteristics threatens to re-confine women to destinies determined by their reproductive organs.
“WEL has always been a gender inclusive organisation. Our policy and advocacy seek to enable gender equality where women and men can move beyond ‘sexually’ based norms in work, caring, ending sexual and domestic violence, sexual and reproductive health care and leadership. These are the policy areas the opposition parties in parliament should focus on.
“We are shocked that this Bill positions transgender people as threats to women when they are actually courageous allies in the long fight for gender equality.”
Dr Morgan Carpenter, bioethicist and Executive Director of Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA):
“Proposals to define biological sex in law don't respect people whose innate characteristics are not typically female or typically male.
“These proposals coercively reassign many of us to categories we've never lived in.”
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) CEO Sophie Cusworth:
“It is deeply concerning to see continued attempts to weaken the SDA. Defining rights through narrow concepts of biology ignores the diversity and complexity of human experience.
“Women, girls and gender-diverse people with disability know all too well the impacts of discrimination and systemic exclusion. Attempts to narrow protections under the SDA, including attacks on trans and gender-diverse people, should concern us all. The Act is central to Australia’s anti-discrimination framework and to advancing gender equality, and it must be fiercely protected.”
Open letter: https://equalityaustralia.org.au/open-letter-to-federal-mps/
Video: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DdP7fSGiqDW/
