Labor blocks debate on Coalition Senators Alex Antic and Matt Canavan's bill to restore biological definitions in Sex Discrimination Act
Liberal Senator Alex Antic and Nationals Senator Matt Canavan tabled a private senator's bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act by removing references to gender identity, and 'restoring the act to its original purpose" on Thursday.
TheSex Discrimination Amendment (Restoring Biological Definitions) Bill would remove references to gender identity while returning clear definitions of a man and a woman as "members of the male and female sex respectively", Senator Antic said.
The Australian Sex Discrimination states it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of age, disability, race, sex, intersex status, gender identity and sexual orientation, with the term 'gender identity' controversially added in 2013 by the Gillard government.
However, the Senate erupted on Thursday after Labor, the Greens and other members of the crossbench voted against the first reading being heard.
First readings are typically considered a parliamentary formality.
Deputy manager of Opposition business in the Senate Paul Scarr unleashed on Labor for vetoing debate and flatly rejecting the bill at the first reading stage.
'While the Senate has the opportunity to reject a bill at the first reading stage, in practise the first reading is almost always passed without opposition and is regarded as a purely formal stage,' Senator Scarr said in the Senate.
The Queensland Liberal Senator outlined that the Coalition in the past had supported numerous bills tabled by the Greens, Labor and the crossbench which it had 'strongly opposed'.
He said first readings were 'normal procedures' which should not be politicised.
'The normal process enables bills to be fairly considered and debated by the Senate before a substantive decision is taken. It should only be deviated from in the most extreme of circumstances, lest we deny the right of Senators to even have matters debated," he said.
Finance Minister and Manager of Government Business in the Senate Katy Gallagher conceded that first readings were a 'normal custom and practice'.
But she said the government would not allow the Senate to become a forum which could enable 'harm.'
'We do not agree with the Senate being a place where individual harm can be done to young people across this country. That is what would have happened had we allowed this bill to proceed in the normal course and we won't stand for it,' Senator Gallagher said.
The decision to block the bill's first reading was upheld and split down party lines, with the Greens and progressive independents siding with the government to quash debate completely while LNP and One Nation Senators voted in favour of Senator Antic and Senator Cannavan's bill.
The legislation was also scratched from the Parliament of Australia website, despite all other bills of the day being available for public viewing.
Queensland One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts railed against the government for using its super-majority to clamp down on parliamentary debate.
'What we're seeing here is an example of control,' Senator Roberts said.
Senator Antic said that 'sex is not a social constrict' but rather a "core biological reality that underpins human nature" and that 2013 amendments "made discrimination based on appearance or mannerisms in relation to gender identity an offence.'
In mid-April over 5,000 academics, doctors, mental health practitioners and teachers urged the government to come clean on answering 'what is a women?' and to further remove the phrase 'gender identity' from section 5B of the Sex Discrimination Act.
In early April the UK's Supreme Court ruled that the term 'woman' is based on biological sex as opposed to gender identity.
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