WOMEN in three state capitals over the weekend joined with Kirralie Smith’s campaign to fix the misused Sex Discrimination Act and to restore sex-based rights in Australian law.
Rallies were held in Melbourne and Brisbane on Saturday and at the Martin Place Amphitheatre, in Pitt Street, Sydney today, Sunday.
Speakers included Professor Clive Hamilton, Professor Dianna Kenny, Kirralie Smith, Anna Kerr of the Feminist Legal Clinic, Lesbian Action Group, Jasmine Sussex.
Then, from 1pm, Women’s Community Voices gave women from the community the microphone to share their stories, speak about the impact of current law and policy, and explain why women’s rights matter.
In Melbourne on Saturday Ms Smith stood on the Victorian Parliament steps just metres from a trans rights counter protest, and told the first Fix the SDA rally that the $95,000 she’s been ordered to pay remains unpaid, and that the laws which produced the order “defy reality”.
The rally was part of the opening day of a national campaign to restore the biological definitions of “man” and “woman” to the Sex Discrimination Act.
Ms Smith’s, Sall Grover’s and other cases involving “transgender vilification” are traced back to an amendment by Julia Gillard’s government that deleted the definitions of “man” and “woman” from the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013, the change Australian courts now read as putting gender identity ahead of biological sex.
Gillard has been chased by pro-women protesters across Britain with a banner calling her the “Destroyer of Women’s Rights”.
Sall Grover, whose Giggle v Tickle case is headed for a High Court special leave decision, addressed the crowd by recorded message after she was subjected to death threats.
Ms Smith, the Binary Australia spokeswoman fighting the six figure vilification penalty of her own, put the campaign’s argument in the bluntest terms of the day.
“Once upon a time, slavery was lawful. The law was wrong. Once upon a time, racism and apartheid were lawful. The law was wrong,” she said.
“Today, in 2026, right here in Australia, it is lawful for men to say that they’re women, but that law is wrong. No human can change sex. These laws defy reality, and they will not remain.”
Kirralie explained in a social media video after the Saturday rallies that police were well aware of the violent tendencies towards women of “angry men in dresses” and a heavy police presence – including a riot squad in Melbourne – was seen at both rallies to separate the pro-women protesters from Socialist Alternative and various other vocal supporters of transgenderism.
“The police know we need protection and those police officers had their backs towards the women, but they’re facing towards the angry men in dresses and their friends – the ones who wish they were women, who wish they could access our sport, our spaces and our services,” she said.
Ms Smith recently received a death threat from an individual online and lodged a complaint with NSW Police. The poster named Riles said: “We are going to put a bullet in your f….ing head for bringing men to (complainant’s blacked out name) to intimidate her. 1 terf, 1 bullet. You will suffer immense physical anguish for putting our side in harm’s way. F… your Christian nationalism. Hail Satan, praise Lilith….” and so on. (see video)
Ms Smith did not find the response of NSW Police very encouraging. They agreed that a crime had been committed but said there probably “was not much they could do about it”.
“Do I have to wait until they put a bullet in my head? Do we have to wait until a female athlete is seriously injured or killed?” she said.