Pauline Hanson Weighs In Ahead of This Week’s Giggle v Tickle Appeal Result

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has tweeted about the upcoming decision of the highly publicised Giggle v Tickle legal battle, expressing support for Giggle for Girls app and its founder, anti-trans campaigner Sall Grover. The decision will be announced on Friday 15th May.

“Australia will find out whether people born as male but identifying as female can be excluded from women-only spaces under Australian law today,” wrote Pauline Hanson on Twitter. “The Federal Court will hand down a decision in the case of Giggle v Tickle case from 2pm. Here’s a throwback from our cartoons on what happens when common sense loses to “trans rights”.”

Last year Giggle for Girls app and its founder Sall Grover sought to overturn a landmark 2024 finding that they discriminated against a transgender woman by removing her from the female-exclusive platform in September 2021.

The ruling was the first gender identity discrimination case in Australia to reach the federal court, and the first time the updated Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) had been tested in a court.

The woman who was barred from the app, Roxanne Tickle, won her discrimination case last year, with Justice Robert Bromwich ruling that she was indirectly discriminated against based on the fact that she is a trans woman.

However, Giggle and Grover appealed the ruling.

Pauline Hanson has campaigned significantly on anti-trans issues, and has repeatedly introduced or supported measures to define women “biologically” in the Sex Discrimination Act, arguing this protects women’s spaces, sport and services from the inclusion of transgender women.

However, many anti-trans advocates seek to distance themselves from right-wing politics and Hanson’s support, as they rely on an interpretation of feminism and women’s rights as their reasoning to limit the rights and dignities of the transgender community, and point to Hanson’s broader lack of support for feminist issues.

This includes her opposition to expanding abortion access. One Nation describes itself as “pro-life” and has supported reducing abortion gestational limits and introducing mandatory counselling requirements for women seeking abortions.

One Nation has also opposed some gender equality reforms and has framed parts of the domestic violence and family law systems as “unfair to men”.  She has also voted consistently against making sanitary items GST free.

Recently Hanson and One Nation faced criticism after employing Sean Black, a staffer who had been rehired by the minor party after he went to jail in 2018 for raping and violently assaulting a woman. Hanson responded to criticism saying she had received “no complaints” by other female staff.

Some One Nation voters also found her gesture of support for someone who claims to be a “women’s rights campaigner” problematic.

“I hope the lesbians win against cocks in frocks, but honestly, they’re lesbians, it’s their feminazi movement that created this shit in the first place,” wrote one person criticising Hanson’s tweet.