Gillard says current issues were not raised when parliament debated

Julia Gillard has reopened debate over Australia’s sex discrimination law after comments about the 2012 parliamentary debate on changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.

Speaking at the University of Manchester in the UK, Gillard said issues relating to men identifying as women were not raised when the legislation came before parliament in 2012.

She told the audience the issues “were not raised by anyone (back in 2012, when the legislation came before parliament) because they simply weren’t a matter of public discourse the way they are today.”

Gillard also argued that the political and public context has changed since that debate. “It was a different time,” she said. “So it is an error to uplift what we know now and the public discourse now and just putting it down to 14 years ago”.

The remarks were later used in a public argument about Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who is patron of Equality Australia. A statement calling for a response argued that Mostyn should make clear whether she agrees with Gillard’s position.

Sam Mostyn and Equality Australia

Equality Australia recently intervened on the side of Roxanne Tickle in the Giggle v Tickle case.

Tickle sued Giggle for Girls app founder Sall Grover. Grover lost and is now appealing to the High Court.

The same statement also referred to other litigation involving Equality Australia. It argued that the group is publicly supporting two drag queens suing the author of the statement for alleged hate speech.

Meanwhile, the briefing linked Gillard’s latest comments to the original law change in parliament. Then attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told parliament that the amendment would give “transwomen” the same rights as women.

That detail sits alongside Gillard’s Manchester comments that the issue was not part of public debate in 2012. The Coalition also voted for the legislative change put forward by Gillard and Dreyfus.

The statement presented Gillard’s comments as a warning about the long-term effects of legislation. It also argued that politicians too often accept claims from LGBTQA+ political activists without testing them.

Mostyn drew criticism because she is patron of Equality Australia while the organisation is directly involved in current legal disputes. The statement argued that she should depoliticise the office of Governor-General and resign as patron.