Family First has welcomed the Northern Territory Government\u2019s landmark decision to ban biological males from women\u2019s prisons and has reaffirmed that, if elected at the upcoming state elections, its Upper House candidates will move legislation to ensure the same protections in South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales.
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NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro declared: \u201cThere should be no men in women\u2019s prisons, full stop\u2026 if you are a man and you\u2019re fundamentally equipped as a man, then you belong in a men\u2019s prison.\u201d
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Family First Upper House candidates Deepa Mathew (SA), Bernie Finn and Jane Foreman (VIC), and Lyle Shelton (NSW) said the move stands in stark contrast to the ideological confusion that has gripped other states.
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\u201cMs Finocchiaro\u2019s stand is just common sense,\u201d said Mr Finn. \u201cIt\u2019s shocking that it takes the Northern Territory to remind southern states that women have the right to safety and dignity.\u201d
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The call follows the shocking case in South Australia: where a female prisoner, known as Katie, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a violent trans-identifying male inmate, Krista Richards, formerly known as Leslie Graham Richards, at Port Augusta Prison. Richards \u2014 a convicted would-be hitman with a history of violence against women \u2014 was housed with Katie despite prison authorities knowing his record.
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\u201cEvery woman in Australia should be horrified by what happened to Katie,\u201d said South Australian Family First candidate Deepa Mathew. \u201cA woman was trapped in a cell with a man \u2014 a violent offender \u2014 because LGBTIQA+ ideology trumped common sense. It\u2019s hard to imagine a more grotesque betrayal of women\u2019s rights. No government that allows this can claim to care about women\u2019s safety.\u201d
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Family First noted that both Labor and Liberal parties in southern states have failed to take such a clear position. In Victoria, Opposition Leader Brad Battin recently said he supported biological men who identify as women being housed in women\u2019s prisons so long as they are not sex offenders \u2014 a position Family First described as a good start but \u201ctimid and incoherent.\u201d
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\u201cThe issue is not just sex offenders \u2014 it\u2019s about protecting women from the risk, trauma and indignity of being locked up with men,\u201d said Ms Foreman.
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Queensland\u2019s now Health Minister Tim Nicholls went further in June 2023, telling Parliamen \u201cI completely endorse the findings of the committee that there is no evidence whatsoever that transwomen are any more likely to commit offences than other women are. There is no reason for fear of those things (biological males taking advantage of girls and women).\u201d
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Family First called this statement \u201cdisgracefully out of touch\u201d given multiple cases of biological males assaulting women in prison \u2014 including the South Australian case that sparked national outrage.
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\u201cThis comes barely a week after the Sex Discrimination Commissioner admitted she doesn\u2019t even \u2018understand the term biological man\u2019,\u201d said Mr Shelton. \u201cWhen senior bureaucrats and politicians deny basic biology, women lose.\u201d
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\u201cFamily First will end this madness. We will legislate to protect girls and women from dangerous gender ideology in prisons and restore biological reality to law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Family First has welcomed the Northern Territory Government\u2019s landmark decision to ban biological males from women\u2019s prisons and has reaffirmed that, if elected at the upcoming state elections, its Upper House candidates will move legislation to ensure the same protections in South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales.\u00a0NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro declared: \u201cThere should … Continue reading “Man ban in women\u2019s prisons reaffirmed after NT takes the first step”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35411,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35410\/revisions\/35411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}