16th Mar 2021, 4:22 PM – Senate Motions - Gender Language - Concerns about "distorted" language

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts (One Nation), which mean it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own but are politically influential as they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) our fundamental biology and relationships are represented through the following descriptors - mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, boy, girl, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, female, male, man, woman, lady, gentleman, Mr, Mrs, Ms, sir, madam, dad, mum, husband, wife,

(ii) broad scale genuine inclusion cannot be achieved through distortions of biological and relational descriptors,

(iii) an individual's right to choose their descriptors and pronouns for personal use must not dehumanise the human race and undermine gender,

(iv) Dr Lyons from Logan (Queensland) reports incidences of young children feeling stressed and panicked about whether it is okay to use the words boy and girl, and

(v) pushing gender-neutral language is no replacement for appropriate emotional and psychological support for children while growing up; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) reject the use of distorted language such as gestational/non-gestational parent, chest-feeding, human milk, lactating parent, menstruators, birthing/non-birthing parent, and

(ii) ensure all federal government and federal government funded agencies do not include these terms in their material, including legislation, websites, employee documentation and training materials.