Restore Women’s Rights – Fix the Act Rally

Women’s organisations, community groups and independent women from across Australia are gathering in Sydney to call on the Commonwealth Parliament to restore clear and effective sex-based rights in Australian law.
The Restore Women’s Rights – Fix the Act Rally follows growing concern about the operation of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 after amendments made in 2013 introduced gender identity as a protected attribute and removed the statutory definitions of “man” and “woman”.
These changes have created serious uncertainty about whether women can lawfully organise, associate, compete and receive services on the basis of sex.
The conflict is not theoretical or a 'culture war'.
The Giggle v Tickle litigation demonstrated services established specifically for females are not protected by the provisions intended to advance equality between women and men when challenged under gender-identity discrimination law.
For many women, this exposes a deeper problem: gender identity ideology is increasingly being used to displace the legal relevance of biological sex and weaken the rights of women as a sex class.
This has implications far beyond one online service.
It affects the future of:
- women’s support and trauma services

- lesbian organisations
- girls’ organisations
- women’s sporting categories
- female-only associations and advocacy groups
- professional networks and women-specific programs
- accommodation, changing facilities and intimate spaces
- prisons and institutions
- online women’s communities
- women’s freedom of association
Sex matters wherever bodies matter — including privacy, dignity, intimate care, trauma recovery, accommodation, physical competition and vulnerability to male violence.
Women should not need years of litigation, expensive legal advice or temporary government permission simply to create and maintain female-only services, spaces, associations and activities.
What are we asking Parliament to do?
We are calling for reforms to the Sex Discrimination Act so that:
- sex is clearly defined as biological and immutable

- women and girls are legally recognised on the basis of biological sex where sex is materially relevant
- female-only services, spaces, associations and activities can be lawfully maintained
- women can organise and advocate as a sex class
- special measures for females are legally effective
- female sporting categories are protected
- conflicts between sex and gender identity are resolved clearly in legislation
We are united around one central principle: Women must remain legally recognisable as a sex class.
This Sydney Rally is not about hostility towards individuals. Every person should be protected from violence, threats and harassment.
But protecting people from mistreatment does not require the removal, weakening or redefinition of women’s sex-based rights.
Parliament created this conflict. Parliament must now resolve it.

SPEAKERS
• Sall Grover (Giggle)
• Professor Clive Hamilton (Philosopher)
• Anna Kerr, Principal Solicitor (Feminist Legal Clinic)
• Professor Dianna Kenny (Psychologist)
• Lesbian Action Group (In litigation with the Australian Human Rights Commission)
• Kirralie Smith (Women’s Sport)
• Jasmine Sussex (Breastfeeding Advocate)
• And more speakers