Shadow Minister for Regional Health and Regional Communications - Member for Mallee - Transcript - Sky News with James Macpherson - 'The Macpherson Angle' - Sunday 31 May 2026

‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL HEALTH

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TOPICS: Sex Discrimination Act, culture wars, women, gender and gender identity, racism

MacPherson  

Anne Webster, and thanks for coming on the program. Where should we start with all of this?

Webster  

Well, I think my colleague Alison Penfold tabled her private member's business this last week to actually address this, so it all fell apart in 2013 under the Gillard government, which changed the Sex Discrimination Act to include gender identity protections. The problem is they didn't deal with biological sex and the conflict that would arise, which is exactly what we're seeing, and rightly, women are saying we want safe spaces. We want our girls to have toilets and shower blocks that don't have boys identifying as girls in those spaces. We don't want women's prisons with biological men in those prisons who identify as a woman, it's all become very, very murky, and I'm sure back in 2013 Julie Gillard and her government thought this was a great idea, speaking about process, Patricia Karvelas, however, the fact is that it's all falling apart now, and women are the ones who are being sidelined, you know? You raised the point about the Prime Minister going, 'I don't get involved in culture wars. Well, hello. This is this is your side of politics. Labor are actually excellent at culture wars, along with the Greens. We want to remedy this. We want to fix this. We want to have women who are safe in women's spaces, whether it's prisons, domestic violence shelters, whether it's at school, whether it's at gyms, doesn't matter where it is, women should be able to be safe as biologically-sexed women. I don't even think that's a term, but I'm going to use it - rather than those who identify,

MacPherson  

And I applaud you and your Coalition colleagues for this stance, but I have to ask you, 2013 was a long time ago. The Coalition has been in government since then. Why only now?

Webster  

I think it's … well, I've been in for the last seven years. I can't recall, honestly, over the last seven years that we've got to a point where change needed to take place. I personally think the decision should never have been made to put gender identity protections higher than biological sex protections, because this is where we're at now, and girls are getting hurt in sport, playing with boys and against boys, and let alone all the rest that we've been hearing about in the headlines. So, I applaud Alison Penfold, I applaud people like Sall Grover, I applaud so many other women who have been standing up for women's rights in a very honest way.

MacPherson  

All right, just before I let you go. Senate estimates, you would understand, is a rare opportunity for senators to hold government ministers to account. Luckily for taxpayers, Mehreen Faruqi didn't waste her chance. Have a look,

Faruqi

Minister. How about you? Have you completed anti-racism training? This online module has been available for three years.

Minister Farrell

No, I haven't.

Faruqi

You haven't. Why not?

Faruqi

Well, I guess you should.

Farrell

So I shall .. . Sorry, and set a good example.

Faruqi

Okay, that would be really great if you could, and you could encourage your colleagues.

MacPherson  

Anne Webster, have you done your anti-racism online training module

Webster  

Actually, knowing that you were going to ask me about this, I should have taken the time to check James, but I have to tell you that I haven’t … I don't believe I have, and I just think you know Mehreen Faruqi has one subject - that's her subject - go her, and all of us have no doubt a lot of modules. I'm not a senator, so I don't know whether their rules are different to our rules in the House. I don't think that we're required to, so I think it's more important to be aware of our own moral compass and to know whether we're being racist in any of our dealings or not.

MacPherson  

Anne Webster, I reckon you'd be just fine without having to do the module. Mehreen Faruqi obviously thinks it's very important she posted that video to her own social media, so there you go. I appreciate you joining me tonight. Thanks so much.

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