Australian Prime Minister voices support for Parliamentary bill to exclude transgender people from women’s sport

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been reported as offering his support for proposed legislation that would exclude transgender students and athletes from single-sex sport.

The bill, being presented by Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler sets out to ‘save women’s sports’, with Prime Minister Morrison proposal suggesting its aim is “terrific”.

Campaigning in the Tasmanian marginal seat of Lyons on Tuesday, Prime Minister Morrison said he had encouraged Senator Chandler in moving her proposed private member’s bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act.

Under Chandler’s bill, which she introduced to the Senate earlier this month, changes would be made to the Sex Discrimination Act to “clarify” that the operation of single-sex sport on the basis of biological sex was not discriminatory.

Prime Minister Morrison said he supported the legislation, stating “I support it, as Claire knows. I think it’s a terrific bill and I’ve given her great encouragement”, noting “Claire is a champion for women’s sport and I think she’s been right to raise these issues in the way that she has. Well done, Claire.”

However, the bill has been described as “divisive and unnecessary” by equality advocates.

Charlie Burton, from Equality Tasmania, said the bill would strip transgender people of their “right to live as we are, casting us into an unequal, uncertain and unsafe status in the eyes of the law.”

Burton said transgender women had been playing women’s sport and accessing women’s services for many years without any of the problems predicted by Senator Chandler.

Burton told Guardian Australia “Tasmanian sporting organisations have been actively seeking guidance on how to be more inclusive, not less, with strong support from the Tasmanian Government.

“We reject attempts to sow fear and division about policies that have worked well and have made Tasmania a better place for everyone.”

While the bill has little chance of being debated in the House of Representatives and thus becoming law before the Federal Election, if passed it would put Australia out-of-step with inclusion policies adopted by many international sporting federations. However, World Rugby is among bodies that ban transwomen playing at elite levels.