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WA Liberal Party blocks attempt to ‘redefine womanhood’ at State Conference

Peter LawThe West Australian
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David Honey speaks to the media at Parliament House today.
Camera IconDavid Honey speaks to the media at Parliament House today. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West Australian

The WA Liberal Party has passed motions opposing the “redefining of womanhood” and congratulating politicians who condemned transgender children undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

The policy motions, which received majority support at the party’s State Conference on Sunday, come after trans children were thrust into the spotlight during the Federal election campaign.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison’s handpicked Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, described kids that had operations to change their gender as “surgically mutilated and sterilised”.

She later apologised before backflipping and defending the terminology as medically correct. Ms Deves suffered a 6.6 per cent swing when she lost the Sydney seat to incumbent independent Zali Steggall.

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Katherine Deves is Scott Morrison's pick for the New South Wales seat of Warringah.
Camera IconKatherine Deves. Credit: Facebook/Facebook

The motion urging the Peter Dutton-led Federal Opposition to “oppose the redefining of womanhood” was put forward by the WA branch of the Young Liberal Movement. The wording contained no other detail.

Another policy motion asked Liberal members to thank and congratulate WA MPs Michaelia Cash, Linda Reynolds, Slade Brockman and Matt O’Sullivan “for their principled and courageous support” of a Senate motion on gender dysphoria.

That Senate motion said there was an “alarming trend” of teenage girls seeking gender dysphoria treatment and condemned children receiving “experimental and unproven medical treatments of irreversible puberty blockers and sex hormone treatments” and “irreversible transgender surgery”.

Transfolk of WA chair Hunter Gurevich said the motions were not supported by scientific evidence and not representative of the view of the Australian public.

“Health care is a matter for individuals and their healthcare providers. It is not a matter that requires a political stance,” he said.

The second motion was put forward by the Fremantle division, which led calls for the party to oppose an Indigenous Voice to Parliament because there were already 11 Aboriginal politicians in Canberra.

The votes by rank-and-file members of the WA Liberal Party come amid an international debate about the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sport.

In June, the governing bodies for international rugby league and swimming barred transgender women from elite competition.

The Hasluck division also successfully tabled a motion that called on the Federal Opposition to devise a plan to end the moratorium on nuclear energy and “drive nuclear as a key source of baseload power”.

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