Liberal senator Michaelia Cash has failed in her latest attempt to amend the Sex Discrimination Act by introducing biological sex-based definitions.
Parliament declined to consider Senator Cash’s Sex Discrimination Amendment (Restoring Common Sense and Recognising Biological Sex) Bill 2026 in July, but on Tuesday she sought to have it returned to Parliament’s agenda.
The motion was defeated 32 votes to 22, with support coming from Coalition and One Nation senators, as well as United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet. Independent senators David Pocock and Fatima Payman voted against the bill being considered, alongside Labor and Greens MPs.
In a social media post, Senator Cash said she would continue to campaign for changes to the legislation.
“Albo and Wong may not care about biological sex but I do, and I’ll keep fighting,” Senator Cash said, referring to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Greens Senator Nick McKim responded to the latest push for a change of the legislation as “transphobic”.
“They are hunting for votes by hunting vulnerable people. They are introducing dangerously transphobic legislation which targets trans people and deliberately exposes them to harm.” Senator McKim said.
“Spare me the claim that this is somehow about protecting women. The threat to women is not trans people. The threat to women is One Nation giving a job to a convicted rapist. The threat to women is the Liberal and National parties trying to totally undermine education on consent.
“They themselves are the very danger they claim to be warning against. These people are not to be trusted—not around our kids, not around trans kids and not around women’s safety. They have a problem with the very existence of trans people, and, mark my words, they will throw as many of them under the bus as they can in a race to the bottom with One Nation.” Senator McKim said.
Appearing on News24’s The Rita Panahi Show, Senator Cash’s Liberal colleague Senator Leah Blyth said the High Court’s decision not to hear the case involving Giggle for Girls CEO Sall Grover was “devastating”.
Grover was previously found to have unlawfully discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle under the current provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act.
“The only way now to protect women’s rights is for the federal parliament to change the legislation and reintroduce biological definitions for men and women back into the Sex Discrimination Act,” Senator Blyth said.
“We believe women are women, men are men, and that those terms should be defined according to biological sex.”
Senator Blyth argued the proposed changes were necessary to address issues including participation in women’s sport, accommodation in women’s prisons, access to women-only applications, and the protection of male-only spaces.
