This year, AAWAA moved from building foundations to stepping into our national power. We took what we learned in 2024 – that women would respond to clear, sex-based language; that politicians would engage with us; that governments are vulnerable to scrutiny on women’s rights – and we scaled it up. We built something durable. And we have signalled to those with power – who have failed women and girls with impunity and in back rooms for too long – that they have finally met the line, and we are it.
The result is a structured national advocacy organisation with robust governance, financial independence (almost), and demonstrated capacity to lead feminist stances on issues central to the protection of women and girls. But we are also an organisation clear about our strategy and willing to turn away the urgent in favour of the important. We do not do ad hoc campaigns or gesture politics; instead, we focus on changing frameworks, laws, and institutional practices. This approach works because it compounds: every submission, every letter, every FOI, every confirmation of our stance builds the case and the pressure for the next move.
Transformation and governance
In July, AAWAA changed its name from the ‘Affiliation of Australian Women’s Action Alliances’ to the ‘Affiliation of Australian Women’s Advocacy Alliances’ in order to signal that our work is systemic, not episodic. We are not a ‘flash-campaign’ network. We are a sustained, strategic advocacy organisation focused on changing frameworks, laws, and institutional practices around women’s sex-based protections and rights. We also approved our first formal constitution, established our financial structure, made decisions relating to our organisational format. This was not bureaucratic busywork: each step positioned us for long-term funding, litigation, and national political reach.
We also completed four foundation projects: comprehensive lists of parliamentarians across all jurisdictions; a Radar Calendar system for monitoring policy developments; role snapshots showing members how to contribute; and a professional development workshops program covering FOIs, submissions, letter-writing, and the use of digital tools. These are reusable infrastructure. They make future advocacy faster and more coordinated. They mean that the next campaign will build on this one rather than starting from scratch.
Federal elections and Sex Discrimination Act reform
Early in the year, we developed and executed a comprehensive federal election advocacy campaign focused on restoring sex-based protections in the Sex Discrimination Act and we wrote to all candidates standing for the 48th Parliament of Australia with a single, clear message: women’s sex-based protections and rights must be a priority.
The campaign included pre-drafted letters, email packages, and a detailed post-election survey for our members. We also conducted an analysis of our campaign, allowing us to map which candidates and parties were receptive, to document good responses, and to identify MPs who could become allies on Sex Discrimination Act reform – we were pleased to discover that good support emerged from many candidates across parties. The data from this campaign will inform our work with the Parliament going forwards as we now have a constituency of MPs who have already said: “This matters”.
Press Club questions and AHRC strategy
In September 2025, AAWAA questioned Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody at the National Press Club about the AHRC’s failure to use its section 11 powers under the AHRC Act to protect women’s rights under CEDAW in the face of sex self-ID and ‘gender’ policies. This was not a rhetorical question. We followed it up with a formal meeting request and legal analysis. And our question was referred to in Senate Estimates, thus showing the power of seeding into the environment a well thought-out, impactful question on agency responsibilities that agencies cannot ignore.
In November, we questioned ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks at his National Press Club address about the broadcaster’s relationship with ACON. And in our post-address follow-up we asked about the ABC’s participation in the Australian Workplace Equality Index. His response – “this is all new to me this week” – exposed the governance blindness around these schemes. Both interventions generated significant discussion and media coverage, including positive articles in the mainstream media. More importantly, they opened doors. And we now have the AHRC’s attention.
This is strategic advocacy: it takes time, commitment, and clear-thinking, but it lands.
National prisons campaign
Following the Northern Territory’s leadership, AAWAA coordinated a national campaign with letters to state and territory ministers and premiers in all states pushing for female-only prisons and legal sex-based prison placement. NTWAA met with the advisor to the NT Deputy Chief Minister, who agreed with our proposals. The campaign demonstrated our capacity to execute a shared frame across all Australian jurisdictions and to position AAWAA as the coordinating centre of this work. It also showed that governments listen when women from across the country speak with one voice.
Submissions: Federal and international
We wrote over thirty submissions and formal letters to federal, state, territory, and international bodies. Each one was grounded in women’s sex-based protections and rights under CEDAW and international human rights law.
Federally, we led a feminist coalition submission to the ALRC’s review of surrogacy laws (with twelve co-signatory organisations), took an unqualified prohibition stance on surrogacy to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls – and to the ALRC – called for abolition of prostitution and a National Apology in a letter to the PM and Minister for Women, and supported Scotland’s Prostitution (Offences and Support) Bill at the Scottish Parliament.
Internationally, we led a feminist coalition shadow report to the UN Human Rights Council on Australia’s 4th Universal Periodic Review, submitted on reductions in women’s human rights to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and led a coalition critique of the Australian Government’s draft UPR national report.
All of this work was deliberate linkage work. The same themes – sex-based definitions, ‘gender’ language, CEDAW obligations, governance failures – ran through our submissions to Australian governments, UN bodies, and FOI requests. Evidence gathered in one arena is redeployed in another. That is how you build a case that governments cannot ignore.
FOI program
We maintained an active Freedom of Information program to expose governance failures and conflicts of interest. Our FOI requests included
- DFAT and DEWR FOIs regarding Australia’s engagement with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls and CEDAW on sex self-ID policies.
- DCCEEW FOI regarding participation in AWEI and all-gender bathrooms
- Governor-General’s Office FOI regarding patronage of Equality Australia (appealed to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)
These are not casual requests. They are systematic efforts to force transparency and to create a written record of government decisions, delays, and evasions. That record will matter when we go back to argue for reform.
State and territory advocacy
Each of our alliances advanced shared strategic priorities alongside local campaigns. The work was coordinated, targeted, and relentless.
ACT: WAAC Inc made submissions on female-only spaces and prisons, held meetings, and sustained the work week to week of AAWAA.
NSW: NSWWAA made major submissions on the Anti-Discrimination Act review, hate speech protections, mental health strategy, sexual consent reforms, and fertility support and surrogacy review. They wrote to ministers on every front and they reminded the government at every turn that women’s sex-based protections and rights matter.
Northern Territory: NTWAA led the national prisons campaign and secured a meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister. They showed that when women advocate firmly and in good faith, governments will listen.
Queensland: QWAA led the hormone therapies review campaign and challenged gender identity policies in schools and curriculum materials. They engaged directly with the Minister for Women and the education department. Importantly, QWAA did not accept the framing that these are settled questions.
Tasmania: WAAT wrote on sex self-ID, prostitution law reform, women in sport, and female-only prisons. They built relationships with parliamentarians and positioned themselves as the expert voice on these issues.
Western Australia: WAWAA ran an extensive campaign against the Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Bill 2025, writing to all MLCs and MLAs, meeting with parliamentarians, and advocating on prisons. This was a long-game strategy: they will be back when laws come up for review.
South Australia: SAWAA advocated for female-only prisons and joined the national campaign.
Public engagement and media
In July 2025, AAWAA launched The Women’s Advocate podcast, creating a space to explore policy, advocacy, and daily impacts on the loss of protections and rights for women and girls in Australia. The podcast is, again, infrastructure: a way to make our analysis accessible to any woman with a phone and an internet connection. It is intimate and serious. It does not play to anger or outrage. It simply speaks the truth.
The blog at womensadvocacy.net became our main source of news for our members after decommissioning the ‘Getting It Done News’. We published ‘Local Action’ interviews featuring women getting it done across Australia (Carole Ann, Jasmine Sussex, Isla MacGregor, Janet Fraser). These are profiles of women who are stepping up in their own communities: doing the work that does not make headlines but keeps women safe.
Looking ahead
By the close of 2025, AAWAA had consolidated its status as a structured national advocacy organisation with robust governance, financial sustainability, and demonstrated capacity for feminist advocacy.
Our work this year – over 30 submissions and formal letters; leadership of at least five major feminist coalition efforts; two National Press Club questions;our podcast launch; a coordinated national campaign across all Australian jurisdictions – is the foundation for years ahead.
The strategic priorities are clear: restore women’s sex-based definitions and protections in law and policy; use CEDAW and UN mechanisms to expose Australia’s slide on women’s rights; hold the AHRC accountable under section 11; end surrogacy and prostitution; protect female-only spaces and female-only prisons; stop the medicalisation of children; and make sure women have a voice in every policy process that affects us.
In 2025, we showed that feminist advocacy grounded in women’s sex-based protections and rights has power. We showed that women will respond, politicians will listen, and governments are vulnerable to sustained, strategic scrutiny on the rules they themselves have made but often fail to follow.
In 2026 and beyond, we will continue to work with eyes front. We succeed not with anger or by getting dragged into each and every latest outrage. With care for each other, with rigour, with patience, with compassion, and with the absolute focus that women and girls deserve better. And that we – all of us, across this country, speaking together – can build it.
For those who are not acquitting their duties and responsibilities and accountabilities to Australia’s women and girls, we are signalling now: there is a line and in AAWAA you have met it.
