Dr. Anna Cody, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, testified in a Senate estimates hearing on October 7, 2025, affirming that the Sex Discrimination Act protects transgender women as women in female-only spaces like prisons and bathrooms, based on 2013 amendments.
Senators Claire Chandler and Matt Roberts questioned her on cases including transgender woman Roxanne Tickle’s successful lawsuit against a women-only app and a convicted male child sex offender housed in a women’s prison.
The testimony has fuelled criticism from women’s rights advocates on social media, highlighting tensions over gender identity protections versus sex-based rights.