Ms O’CONNOR (Hobart) – Mr President, I will make a brief contribution, and thank the member for Murchison for all the work that went into the committee and to its final report. It was to an area of healthcare which I do not think we talk about enough. Through the member for Murchison’s contribution, for me personally, it really articulated and confirmed a lot of the frustrations that women particularly feel when we go into healthcare and medical settings, but also of course, gender diverse people.
I have a copy at home of that fantastic medical textbook, Gray’s Anatomy and, yes, the picture in it – the ideal human body is a male body. All through that medical textbook is the version of the male body for us to study, to learn more about the human body. Of course, men’s and women’s bodies, and gender diverse bodies, are all very different.
There are a couple of things that occurred to me as I was listening to the member for Murchison’s contribution. I recall someone, a young transgender person, I know very well who, before the parliament fixed up the births, deaths and marriages legislation in about 2019, went to their GP and asked for the GP to sign a statutory declaration, which was what was required then in order to have their birth certificate changed to reflect their gender identity and their chosen name. The GP told this person that no, they would not sign that stat dec, and by the way, in their view, breasts were not a reproductive organ. This young person was also talking to their GP about having their breasts removed. There was a lack of sensitivity towards that young person who was going through a fraught and emotionally very challenging period of their lives, to have a male GP dismiss their path, which was informed, and certainly from that young person’s point of view, very well understood. That young person now lives with their true identity as a young man in Melbourne.
I have also seen my two children, for example, one male, one female, go to the GP and get treated very differently indeed. One of my sons has been able to access painkillers in a way that my daughter was never able to, never allowed to. It was so obvious that that was a decision based on gender.
I have experienced it personally. I have been in pain and felt that I needed something. It was the same situation as the member for Murchison’s dog bite. I was told to take a Panadol as if I am a whining hypochondriac.
We do have to address this issue. As the recommendations in the report are very clear about, we do need proper training and education across the healthcare sector. We need consistent, contemporary, informed, empathetic guidelines for healthcare professionals, dedicated services for women and gender diverse people, and consistent and good data. This parliament will get around to it some time. I am sure we need a human rights act for Tasmania so the rights of our citizens are protected against the excesses, extremes or foolishness of a government or the actions of corporate interests.
I want to reflect on what is happening to women all over the world. We have seen, on 4 November, the election to the presidency of the United States of a 34 times convicted felon: a rapist who embodies the sexism, the misogyny, the racism and the greed at the heart of contemporary fascism. We now have installed, or about to be installed, a man who has treated women with contempt, and been a philanderer all his life, in Donald Trump. After his election, on social media there was a statement, or a tweet, put out by one of the hard-right heroes called Nick Fuentes (ok). It said ‘Your body my choice’. That was the message that was sent to young men after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. He has selected this farcical cabinet. He has his co‑president, Elon Musk, who dreams of a government of elite white males. His pick for Secretary of Defence, Pete Hesgeth (ok), believes that women should not have the vote and they certainly should not be allowed into combat. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is unfolding in America.
It is very important that we remember and understand this: what happens in America affects and infects Australia. We need to be constantly vigilant to stand up against sexism and misogyny, stand for women, girls and gender diverse people. Remember that the Republicans in the United States spent $215 million on advertisements targeting trans people, because one of the hallmarks of fascism is you demonise a minority. I want us to be mindful of the dangers here, that this infection will reach Australia.
Interestingly, on the stats from Planned Parenthood in America following the US elections, appointments for IUDs went up by 760 per cent, and bookings for vasectomies, according to Planned Parenthood, after the 4 November election in the States went up by 1200 per cent. Why is that? In the United States now, women recognise they have a government that is committed to a national abortion ban. We already have women in a number of states in the US dying waiting for medical treatment.
Ms Forrest – Two in Texas in recent times.
Ms O’CONNOR – Two from Texas. It is happening on a weekly basis. Of course, we are not hearing every story, member for Murchison, but we do know that the effect of abortion bans is that women will die. As history tells us, sometimes women take matters into their own hands.
Ms Forrest – And still die.
Ms O’CONNOR – I can tell this story because my grandmother is long passed. My grandmother, my mother told me after my grandmother had died, was the backyard abortionist of Mount Isa in Queensland. There was no service for country women in those days, 60 and 70 years ago. Mum says she remembers these desperate young women knocking on their house door and never really understood what it was for. Those desperate young women.
We are in a much better place now where there is legal access to safe reproductive health services, but again, there is an equity issue, as the member for Murchison made so clear. We have come some way, but it requires constant vigilance. I wanted to say that because I am very worried that the war on women is going extremely well. It is going almost as well as the war on nature.
Mr President, there is one thing they do say about tackling authoritarianism, at the heart of which is misogyny, and that is do not obey in advance. It is really important that when we see something that is worth standing up for, we see other people’s rights being breached or taken away from them, those of us who can have a responsibility to resist on their behalf and do not obey misogynists, racists and fascists in advance. It is through resistance that we change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that has ever led to lasting change.
