Hanson Vows To Sack Sex Discrimination Commissioner Over Trans Pregnancy Row
Pauline Hanson has vowed to fire two of Australia’s most senior human rights officials over what she described as the penetration of “transgender ideology” into government, naming the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and the head of the Human Rights Commission as her first targets if One Nation ever held power.
The One Nation leader made the declaration in her first address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday, telling an audience that included protesters outside and a banner-wielding activist who managed to unfurl a sign behind her on stage mid-speech.
Hanson specifically targeted Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody, who caused controversy in May during a Senate estimates hearing when she said transgender women could face unlawful discrimination on the basis of “potential pregnancy.” The exchange had occurred against the backdrop of escalating political and legal clashes over the definition of a woman in Australian law, including the Full Federal Court ruling in the Tickle v Giggle case. “The transgender ideology has penetrated almost every regulatory authority and is supported by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, who, in government, I would sack,” Hanson said. “So too the head of the Human Rights Commission.”
Hanson, who described transgender ideology as seeking to “redefine humanity and biology,” drew on a 2015 BBC quote from Australian feminist Germaine Greer — “Just because you lop off your penis and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a woman” — and warned that the issue had spread throughout government. “Through a stack of government authorities… this movement, like militant Islam, is everywhere and seeks to redefine humanity and biology,” she said. “It won’t happen if I have any say in it.”
She insisted she was not opposed to transgender people personally, but said transgender women should not be permitted to compete in women’s sport or use women’s changing rooms. She named the Human Rights Commission, the AIDS Council of NSW, the Office for Women and “large sections” of Labor, the Liberals and the Greens among bodies she accused of not applying what she called “biological truth.”
Her speech was disrupted when a banner reading “I opposed a pay rise for workers while I took a $100,000 pay rise for myself” was unfurled behind her on stage. Hanson glanced at it briefly but continued speaking while Press Club staff moved to remove it. A separate protest organised by Canberra Socialists had gathered outside the venue beforehand, with demonstrators carrying signs reading “Migrants are welcome, racists are not.” The venue was surrounded by heightened security.
Hanson also used the address to advocate for nuclear power alongside an expansion of coal and gas, and to criticise the political establishment over immigration policy, calling out Coalition senator Paul Scarr for describing a proposed plebiscite on immigration as “too complex to put to the Australian people.” “That disgusting comment says all you need to know about the political establishment’s contempt for the Australian people,” she said.
Hanson was accompanied by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, who is understood to have helped prepare her address and assisted with handling journalists’ questions.
