NSW Labor MP Greg Donnelly Delivers Anti-Trans Speech At Parliament Event

NSW Labor MP Greg Donnelly spoke at an anti-trans event at the New South Wales Parliament on June 22, where he declared, “There’s got to be a reckoning of what’s been going on.”

The event, called “Why Can’t Women Talk About Sex”, was organised by trans-exclusionary group Binary Australia and hosted by Liberal Democrats MP John Ruddick. It was organised to address the “war on women.”

Speakers Included Moira Deeming And Katherine Deves

Along with Donnelly, speakers included Independent Liberal MP Moira Deeming and failed Liberal candidate Katherine Deves.

The event was also attended by Liberal MP Tanya Davies and One Nation’s Tania Mihailuk.

Donnelly, a member of the right-wing faction of the Labor party, declared that he was “more than happy to be publicly associated with this [event] and to be recognised as a co-conveyor.”

Opening his speech, Donnelly, speaking about the first woman in the New South Wales Legislative Council, received laughter from the audience after he said, “It goes without saying that up to this point, they’re all men, biological men.”

‘Duty-Bound To Resist and Oppose’

He continued in his speech, commending the people in the audience for “standing up” against authoritarianism. 

“You’re standing up for something, which in fact is, in its essence, quite authoritarian and totalitarian. And I don’t mean those words to simply inflate this or to blow it up or to exaggerate it. It’s quite authoritarian and totalitarian,” he said. 

“There’s a sense of being duty-bound to resist and oppose that. And I think we all have to do that in our own ways. 

“Obviously, women have a particularly unique and important role in all of this because of the stakes for them. I do invite my male colleagues in his parliament and all around Australia, to understand we have to stand side by side, arm-by-arm and work with you to push back.”

Donnelly: Not Hateful or Transphobic

Closing his speech he said, “I don’t think that anything that’s been put today, by the women who’ve spoken, can be construed, in any way, as hateful, transphobic, or these range of other allegations.”

“There is an absolute massive level of support, which hitherto has not been revealed, and is not yet animated, and activated,” he continued.

“What I’d like to get people to take away is that it is sort of opening up, it’s broken open… a bit like a dam being broken open. It will flow in a significant way and there will be a reckoning taking place…I don’t mean reckoning in any sort of unsatisfactory way, any unfair way…but there’s got to be a reckoning of what’s been going on.” 

Donnelly has been a member of the NSW Legislative Council since February 2005.

NSW Premier Chris Minns Responds

In a statement to Star Observer, NSW Premier Chris Minns responded to Donnelly’s speech, saying, “These views don’t represent my views, the views of the Government, or the majority of Labor MPs. And I certainly would not have gone to that forum.”

According to Six News, Binary Australia was a rebranding of Marriage Alliance, a group that campaigned for a ‘No’ vote at the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey. 

The group’s website states that it was created “to push back against harmful gender theory and the aggressive ideological agenda.”