The Fight Continues
The Full Court of the Federal Court has handed down its decision in Tickle v Giggle. In doing so, three Federal Court judges put on the record what many of us have known for some time — that women are no longer protected under the Sex Discrimination Act.
The Full Court unanimously dismissed Giggle's appeal, finding that Sall Grover and her women-only social media app had directly discriminated against a transgender-identifying male, by excluding him from the platform. Damages awarded to Tickle were doubled, from $10,000 to $20,000, and Grover was ordered to pay costs. That was the price for wanting to build a space dedicated to women.
But the ruling appears to have finally pushed this issue out into the open. National's Member for Lyne Alison Penfold has announced she will introduce a Private Member's Bill — the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sex-Based Rights) Bill 2026 — seeking to amend the SDA in the House of Representatives. The bill has little chance, but it does force every member of the House of Representatives to take a position, on the record, on the question of women's rights.
WRNA has written to many Federal Parliamentarians — particularly senior figures in the Labor Party, who appear determined to block any attempt at reform. We called for urgent reform to the SDA, and explained the situation plainly:
“In the Court's own reading, the Sex Discrimination Act no longer performs the function for which it was created: to promote equality between women and men by eliminating sex discrimination.
The definitions of "woman" and "man" were removed from the SDA in 2013. This erasure destabilised the legal framework that recognised women as a sex class entitled to protections. Women and girls across Australia are paying the price. Services that meet their specific needs — health services, refuges and rape crisis centres, intimate spaces, bathrooms, and sporting facilities — are being dismantled or treated as discriminatory.
Women are now deprived of legal definition, of services and spaces of their own, and even of data that reflects their needs and experiences. They are treated as a class needing no specific accommodation. Yet women carry the legal duty to accommodate everyone else — and are denied the standing to refuse. In practice, women have been left with legal duties while being deprived of their rights. This is not equality under the law.”
The public reaction to the Tickle v Giggle verdict has made one thing very clear: this issue is not going away. Women across Australia are watching, organising, and refusing to be talked out of what they know to be true.
We are not letting up.
We also know lots of WRNA women are contacting MPs themselves. Alongside the Tickle v Giggle outcome, here are some recent events you may wish to remind them of:
Kirralie Smith is appealing a $95,000 vilification penalty for speaking out against males playing women's football. A stay on the orders was granted on 31 December 2025, and her appeal was heard in the NSW Supreme Court on 25 May 2026 before Justice Sirtes, with judgment reserved.
A counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association has been dragged before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal for publicly stating the truth that men can't breastfeed.
Female footballers have been made to sign agreements effectively banning them from forfeiting matches against teams consisting of biological males, under threat of disqualification.
An application from the Lesbian Action Group to hold events exclusively for lesbians has had to go to court. The matter was sent back for reconsideration after legal errors in an earlier refusal, but the case remains unresolved.
Reliable sex-disaggregated data and research are increasingly hard to obtain. Women are not counted properly in government datasets; including data on health, mortality, crime, employment, housing and education.
The false assumption that gender identity is a universally held or recognised characteristic has been embedded in legal proceedings, policy and government forms. Labels such as "cisgender" or "gender identity" are routinely imposed upon Australian citizens in their documentation and data without their consent.
We are not going anywhere. Neither is this fight. Women are paying attention. So should Parliament.