Under the previous Labor government, the definition was widened to encompass “all people who identify as a woman or girl,” according to the Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Strategy 2032 (pdf).
It came amid broader changes to the Human Rights Act in June 2023—coming into affect a year later—which loosened the requirement for changing the official gender on a birth certificate, to the point where children 12 and up could change their gender without needing surgery or treatment.
“Despite repeated claims to the contrary there is no evidence from any jurisdiction to suggest women will have fewer rights, or be less safe, as a result of these changes,” then-Women’s Minister Shannon Fentiman told Parliament in June 2023.
The centre-right Liberal National Party (LNP) and conservative-leaning Katter Australian Party opposed the law at the time.
This year on Sept. 16, KAP Leader Robbie Katter asked the current LNP Minister Simpson for her definition during Question Time.
“Will the minister (a) define ‘women’ as it is used in the Department of Women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and Multiculturalism; and (b) detail if the minister and department consider transgender people as women?” Katter said.
This week, a response was provided where Simpson officially stated that: “(a) A woman is an adult female human being; and (b) A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is opposite to the sex the person was born with, male or female.”