The Northern Territory Women’s Action Alliance (NTWAA) has written to Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro to thank her for confirming that males shall not be housed in NT female-only prisons and that placement shall occur by sex at birth. Her clear statement that there should be “no men in women’s jails” and that this shall continue “not on my watch” sets a vital national benchmark for protecting women’s dignity, safety, and trauma-informed care in custody. But things need to go further if women are to be protected.
We urge the NT Government to strengthen the Correctional Services Act 2014 by amending Section 40 to remove the “to the extent it is practicable” qualifier (which refers to the separation of classes of prisoners) and explicitly define ‘male prisoners’ and ‘female prisoners’ by sex at birth, ensuring no sex self-identification override for female-only accommodation. To be clear: sex self-identification laws and practices allow men to access women’s spaces on the basis of self-declaration, regardless of male biology.
Why legislation matters
To ensure this policy cannot be diluted by future administrative change, the NT Government now needs to legislate an explicit, sex‑based placement rule for NT correctional facilities, that is, that prisoners are placed by sex at birth, with no sex self-identification provisions for female-only accommodation. Codifying the above rule in the Correctional Services Act would give clear operational direction to corrections, courts, and health services, and provide certainty to NT women that their safety does not depend on changeable policies and guidelines. Without explicit statutory language and provisions, the current approach still remains vulnerable to future policy changes, legal challenges, or pressure from activist groups.
Legislative protection would
- Convert current practice into statutory requirement
- Prevent policy drift under future administrations
- Provide clear operational guidance to corrections staff
- Ensure consistent implementation across all facilities
- Align with federal law and international obligations
Removing legal ambiguities would close back‑door pathways that could force mixed‑sex conditions in female‑only prisons and would align policy with a trauma‑informed duty of care for NT women, the majority of whom have been abused, assaulted, or victimised by violent males. But more than this, the NT should review and repeal sex self‑identification provisions where they create conflict with women’s sex‑based protections and rights in all areas: not just in custody, but also in other female-only services (such as in refuges, healthcare, changerooms, and grant opportunities) and in sport, and for all purposes related to the safeguarding and dignity of women and girls.
Compliance with federal law
Enshrining sex-based placement and closing sex self-ID loopholes strengthens – rather than conflicts with – the Commonwealth’s Sex Discrimination Act 1984, which explicitly permits exemptions for single-sex accommodation and services where reasonably necessary for privacy, safety, or dignity (see, especially, section 32). Critically, Australia has previously assured (see para 138) international bodies such as the CEDAW Committee that “[i]n all states and territories, female prisoners are accommodated separately to male prisoners, often in separate facilities” to provide protection against sex-based violence. But this is simply not true in the current Australian corrections environment.
By codifying placement by sex at birth, the NT would align with these federal frameworks and international assurances whilst providing operational clarity for corrections staff and protecting women from foreseeable harm.
The crisis in other states and territories
The NT Chief Minister’s announcement provides women’s rights advocates with an opportunity to write to premiers and chief ministers across Australia, urging them to match the NT’s approach. Two recent cases demonstrate why urgent action is needed now.
Victoria: male child sex offender in women’s prison
Victoria’s largest women’s prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, currently houses a male sex offender who abused his five-year-old daughter and now identifies as a woman. Despite being convicted of sexual abuse against a child, this man is accommodated alongside vulnerable women, many of whom men have abused and assaulted. The court disturbingly accepted arguments that gender dysphoria diminished his responsibility for sexually abusing his child and that that abuse was committed in part so he could feel “validated” as “a woman and a sexual person”. This placement, enabled by sex self-ID, violates the state’s duty of care owed to women in custody and sets a dangerous precedent for pedophiles and male abusers to self-identify into women’s spaces.
South Australia: alleged assault at Port Augusta Prison
A young woman named Katie alleges she was sexually assaulted in Port Augusta Prison after being placed with Krista Richards (previously Leslie Graham Richards), a male offender with a history of violence against women and who identifies as a transgender woman. SA’s Correctional Services had previously single-celled Richards due to recognised risk, yet Katie was forced to share accommodation with him and left for days with her alleged attacker after reporting the assault. As Katie’s case shows, systematic failures occur when sex self-ID overrides female-only sex-based placement and risk assessment that should prioritise women’s safeguarding.
The problem: sex self-ID laws across Australia
These cases illustrate the urgent need for clear, sex-based placement rules. Six Australian jurisdictions – Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory – have introduced sex self-identification laws that allow adults to change their legal sex marker based solely on self-declaration. And even in South Australia and the Northern Territory, where clinical treatment requirements exist, the bar is low, leaving women’s sex-based protections vulnerable.
Victoria introduced sex self-identification in 2019 through amendments to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (VIC) Under Section 30A, adults can change their legal sex based on self-declaration. Queensland’s Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 2023 (QLD) similarly enables individuals aged 16 and over to change their legal sex marker on self-declaration. New South Wales introduced sex self-identification in July 2025 through the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Act 2024 (NSW) and Western Australia’s recent Births, Deaths, and Marriages Amendment (Sex or Gender Changes) Act 2024 (WA) enables legal sex changes with a 12-month waiting period between changes, up to a maximum of three changes as an adult. Even South Australia, which requires clinical treatment certified by a medical practitioner or psychologist for birth certificate changes under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (SA), proves vulnerable when sex self-ID overrides sex-based placement, as we see in the Katie case above.
These laws create potential – and actual – conflict with women’s sex-based protections and safeguarding in correctional settings, making explicit legislative protection for female-only prison placement urgent across Australia.
What premiers and chief ministers can do: following the NT example
Following the NT example, every premier and chief minister can take immediate action to
- Confirm in writing that male prisoners shall not be housed in female-only prisons regardless of legal sex markers or self-declared or ‘certified’ sex.
- Order an immediate audit of current placements and relocate any males from women’s prisons forthwith with case-managed transitions of males to the men’s estate.
- Amend correctional services legislation to explicitly require sex-based placement for prisoners, ensuring female-only correctional institutions remain female-only. In Victoria, Premier Jacinta Allan can act under existing correctional legislation, and in South Australia, under the Correctional Services Act, Premier Peter Malinauskas can direct the Minister for Correctional Services to order an immediate audit of current placements (Section 19) and introduce legislative amendments. Similar authority exists in every jurisdiction.
- Amend sex self-ID legislation to include explicit exemptions for correctional placement and all other instances in which female-only services, provisions, safeguarding, and dignity are relevant. Or better still, repeal these laws entirely and return to objective, verifiable criteria for legal sex recognition.
- Publish clear directives to state correctional services implementing immediate sex-based placement with transparent annual public reporting.
The time for such action is now. Women in custody deserve the same sex-based protections guaranteed to all Australian women under the federal Sex Discrimination Act, and premiers and chief ministers have both the authority and the responsibility to ensure those protections are upheld.
