Pauline Hanson used a major national address to deliver a fierce critique of what she called a growing transgender movement in Australia.
In her remarks, the One Nation leader claimed transgender ideology had spread through key regulatory bodies and said she would remove senior officials she believes support it. Hanson singled out the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, saying that in government she would sack the officeholder, and added that she would do the same to the head of the Human Rights Commission.
Hanson said her position was not opposition to transgender people themselves, but to the participation of transgender women in women’s sport and their access to women’s changing rooms.
She went on to describe the transgender movement as a militant force operating across society that, in her view, should be challenged.
Expanding on that argument, Hanson said the movement had influence through a range of government authorities that most Australians rarely think about because they are focused on their daily lives. She compared its reach to militant Islam, claiming it was widespread and aimed at reshaping understandings of humanity, biology and, ultimately, the nation.
Hanson also expressed concern about what she described as a campaign in which a man could become a woman simply by feeling that way. She said it was troubling that major political parties, in her view, appeared to struggle to define what constitutes a woman and a man.