Reforming the Sex Discrimination Act: An interview with Dr Megan Blake

Parliament, not the courts, holds the key to fixing the Sex Discrimination Act. Dr Megan Blake explains what workable reform would need to address, from the meaning of 'sex' to the limits of the exemption process. Dr Megan Blake is co-counsel for the Lesbian Action Group in its case against the Australian Human Rights Commission … Continue reading Reforming the Sex Discrimination Act: An interview with Dr Megan Blake →

TUF. Female alignment with male power: What feminist theory says

Second-wave and radical feminist theorists never treated women's resistance to our own sex's collective interests as an inconvenience or mystery to be explained away; instead, they built a body of analysis specifically to account for it, and that analysis remains sharper and more precise than anything the term 'misogyny' alone can capture. Misogyny, properly defined, … Continue reading TUF. Female alignment with male power: What feminist theory says →

Moving the surrogacy review deadline: The ALRC’s silence

The Australian Law Reform Commission told stakeholders in late July that its review of surrogacy laws was nearly complete. But only a few days earlier, the Attorney-General had agreed to give it six more weeks, and neither will say why. This is not the first time direct questions to the ALRC about how this review … Continue reading Moving the surrogacy review deadline: The ALRC’s silence →

The guilt trade: Conversion therapy shame and the sex and gender debate

The Tasmanian Greens are aiming to ban practices that seek to change or suppress sexual orientation or gender identity. In a move to follow other states, the draft bill raises deeper questions about how Australia has conflated sexual orientation with gender identity, and how our collective cultural shame about past gay conversion therapy is being … Continue reading The guilt trade: Conversion therapy shame and the sex and gender debate →

Women’s rights bodies must come first in surrogacy law reform

AAWAA will be presenting at a major national conference on surrogacy, speaking on a panel that includes Ms Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls. Ahead of the Melbourne event, to be held on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 August, we are publishing our responses to supplementary questions asked of us … Continue reading Women’s rights bodies must come first in surrogacy law reform →

AAWAA Women’s Summit 2026

Fri 2 - Sat 3 October 2026, Canberra. This October, AAWAA is holding a women’s advocacy summit focused on strengthening our analysis, improving our practice, and building the capacity we need for serious, sustained work for women and girls. Across two days, we will work on practical advocacy skills – from writing and media to … Continue reading AAWAA Women’s Summit 2026 →

A decade of failure on women, absent from Australia’s draft UN report

Australia will soon report to the UN on how it has upheld women's rights over the past decade. We tested that account as it currently stands against the data, the courts and the FOI record. Over the ten years since Australia's last periodic report to the UN on its compliance with the International Covenant on … Continue reading A decade of failure on women, absent from Australia’s draft UN report →

Silence from the top: What Australia’s CSW delegation still hasn’t addressed

Women are the key stakeholders in the issues Australia's CSW delegates represent — yet AAWAA, writing on women's behalf, has received no response to the concerns we raised with those delegates in March. Since then, the pattern we warned about has only deepened, as our latest communication to the CSW, ahead of CSW71, now sets … Continue reading Silence from the top: What Australia’s CSW delegation still hasn’t addressed →

Is ‘woman’ now a historical relic in Australian midwifery regulation?

Australia's midwifery regulator – administered by Ahpra – has proposed reframing 'woman', 'mother', 'she' and 'maternity' as terms kept in its guidelines only for "historical and professional context", while offering no definition of biological sex anywhere in the document. AAWAA made a submission to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) in early June, … Continue reading Is ‘woman’ now a historical relic in Australian midwifery regulation? →

TUF. Patriarchy: The structure we are not supposed to name (The Unmoved Feminist)

The term 'patriarchy' appears constantly — in social media captions, corporate diversity statements, and the language of political parties across the spectrum — yet it is almost never explained. Most often it functions as a synonym for 'bad attitudes towards women', as though the problem were a cultural mood that better education and more enlightened … Continue reading TUF. Patriarchy: The structure we are not supposed to name (The Unmoved Feminist) →

A timeline of women’s rights: CEDAW, the 2013 amendments, and the loss of sex‑based protections

The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (the SDA) was enacted to give effect to Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and to protect women as a sex class from discrimination in public and political life.This timeline tracks changes to the SDA from its foundations in … Continue reading A timeline of women’s rights: CEDAW, the 2013 amendments, and the loss of sex‑based protections →

What did Gillard know? Reckoning with the 2013 SDA amendments

In the current debate over the 2013 Sex Discrimination Act amendments, former prime minister Julia Gillard has now made her first public comments about claims that her government “destroyed” women’s protections. Speaking at Manchester University, she told the audience that concerns about the issues now being raised “were not raised by anyone” when the changes … Continue reading What did Gillard know? Reckoning with the 2013 SDA amendments →

Women affected by AHRC decisions get answers in Adelaide – but key questions remain

In April 2026, the Federal Court found legal error in the Australian Human Rights Commission's approach to the Lesbian Action Group's exemption application and held that the Commission's own guidelines were deficient. In June, the Commission went to Adelaide to talk about human rights. Some of the women most affected by its decisions went too. … Continue reading Women affected by AHRC decisions get answers in Adelaide – but key questions remain →

TUF. Female‑only spaces and the politics of women’s safety (The Unmoved Feminist)

The current debate about female‑only spaces can make it sound as if they are an eccentric preference or an unfortunate relic from a less “inclusive” time. In policy documents and media commentary, refuges, rape crisis centres, women’s prisons and female sports categories are increasingly described as exclusionary or old‑fashioned. Proposals for “gender‑neutral” services present themselves … Continue reading TUF. Female‑only spaces and the politics of women’s safety (The Unmoved Feminist) →

‘We have guidelines’: AHRC tells women to rely on deficient rules for exemptions

At the AHRC's national 'The Answer Is Human Rights' seminar series, women's advocates have now twice put direct governance questions to Commission officers and twice received responses that acknowledge that questions exist — but without answering them. In Sydney on 17 June, the question was specific: the Federal Court, in the Lesbian Action Group vs … Continue reading ‘We have guidelines’: AHRC tells women to rely on deficient rules for exemptions →

A “narrow area of intersection”: AHRC tells women to seek exemptions, not reform

At the Perth stop of the Australian Human Rights Commission's national 'The Answer Is Human Rights' seminar series, held on 11 June, an audience member put a direct and carefully prepared question to AHRC President Hugh de Kretser. The question came from Ms Amber Rossi, a director of the Affiliation of Australian Women's Advocacy Alliances. … Continue reading A “narrow area of intersection”: AHRC tells women to seek exemptions, not reform →

TUF. Counting women: Why sex‑based data still matters (The Unmoved Feminist)

At first glance, “sex‑disaggregated data” sounds like a technical matter best left to statisticians. It is easy to assume that debates about whether forms record “sex” or “gender identity”, or whether reports talk about “women” or “people who experience violence”, are just questions of wording. From a second‑wave, materialist feminist perspective, they are nothing of … Continue reading TUF. Counting women: Why sex‑based data still matters (The Unmoved Feminist) →

TUF. The feminist waves and why sex‑based feminism still matters (The Unmoved Feminist)

The language of feminist 'waves' is a retrospective way of organising more than two centuries of women's resistance to male domination, not a label that women necessarily used for themselves at the time. The metaphor can be useful, but it can also hide how continuous the struggle has been, and how much of that struggle … Continue reading TUF. The feminist waves and why sex‑based feminism still matters (The Unmoved Feminist) →

“Australia not to provide a submission”: Inside DFAT’s management of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls

More than a year of FOI requests and appeals has produced a broadly consistent picture of how the Australian Government manages its relationship with the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem. This article draws on decisions and document releases from both DEWR and DFAT to set out the main features … Continue reading “Australia not to provide a submission”: Inside DFAT’s management of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls →

Naming the harm: Why Tasmania’s mental health strategy must start with male violence

When governments design mental health strategies, they often treat mental health as a system design problem: how many beds, which referral pathways, what integration models. That approach can improve access and efficiency, but it sidesteps a harder question: what is actually driving women's and girls' mental distress in the first place? AAWAA's submissions to Tasmania's … Continue reading Naming the harm: Why Tasmania’s mental health strategy must start with male violence →

Tasmania’s mental health reboot: Will women get a real say?

Across Australia, women’s and girls’ mental health is being shaped by male violence, the erosion of female‑only services, and the continued absence of robust sex‑disaggregated data. Tasmania is no exception. Tasmania’s Department of Health is developing the next mental health strategy, ‘Rethink and Beyond’, and invited submissions from stakeholders and community members. For AAWAA and … Continue reading Tasmania’s mental health reboot: Will women get a real say? →

Did the AHRC seek costs against the Lesbian Action Group? A timeline

https://youtu.be/nHb1jUUm9nI August 2023 — The Lesbian Action Group applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission for a temporary exemption under section 44 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) to hold lesbians born female only public events. 12 October 2023 — The Commission refused the exemption. 20 January 2025 — The Administrative Review Tribunal affirmed … Continue reading Did the AHRC seek costs against the Lesbian Action Group? A timeline →

Older women: Present in the data, absent from the response

Older women are named in every framework — elder abuse plans, aged care policy, and national plans on violence against women — but none of those frameworks treats them as a distinct group with distinct needs. Last week, AAWAA took part in an expert online consultation convened by Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on … Continue reading Older women: Present in the data, absent from the response →

No more excuses: The SDA must be reformed

AAWAA has been making the case for reform of the Sex Discrimination Act for some time, and the Full Court has now effectively validated our concerns. The Court has admitted the problem In its 15 May 2026 decision in Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd v Tickle, the Full Federal Court traced the evolution of the … Continue reading No more excuses: The SDA must be reformed →

When ‘dismantling stereotypes’ reinforces them: The CEDAW draft’s conceptual problem

'Dismantling gender stereotypes' sounds uncontroversial. But what if the CEDAW Committee’s new draft recommendation risks embedding those stereotypes and making them harder to shift? The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is finalising General Recommendation No. 41 — a document that will interpret States parties' obligations to eliminate 'gender stereotypes' under … Continue reading When ‘dismantling stereotypes’ reinforces them: The CEDAW draft’s conceptual problem →

TUF. Prostitution and the sexual contract (The Unmoved Feminist)

The language around prostitution has shifted markedly over the past two decades. In media commentary and policy documents we are now more likely to see 'sex work', 'clients' and 'services' than 'prostitution' or 'male buyers'. Online platforms present it as one more strand of the gig economy, organised through apps and personal branding. At the … Continue reading TUF. Prostitution and the sexual contract (The Unmoved Feminist) →

No great conflict: The AHRC, the Lesbian Action Group, and the questions Parliament needs to ask

The Australian Human Rights Commission wants Parliament to expand its enforcement powers in matters of sex and gender. We asked the Commission's President about it at the National Press Club. On 29 April 2026, Mr Hugh de Kretser, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, addressed the National Press Club in Canberra. The Women's Advocate … Continue reading No great conflict: The AHRC, the Lesbian Action Group, and the questions Parliament needs to ask →

Lived experience is not enough: When ‘fertility support’ becomes a market in women and children

Behind the neutral language of ‘fertility support’ sits a blunt question: Will New South Wales authorise a market in women’s pregnancies and the handover of children, or refuse to build that market at all? On Tuesday, we appeared before the New South Wales Legislative Council inquiry into ‘fertility support’ and assisted reproductive technologies to give … Continue reading Lived experience is not enough: When ‘fertility support’ becomes a market in women and children →