Thread by @Bernard_Lane

Australia has taxpayer-funded sport guidelines promoting transgender inclusion, launched in 2019 after "confidential, targeted and respectful” consultations with unnamed groups. But whose idea was this? Senator Claire Chandler asked some months ago & got this answer --

In October, Chandler & Robert Dalton, acting CEO of @sportaustralia, the top government agency, were back in the Senate. In preamble to a question, Chandler reminded Dalton about his agency having kicked off the guideline project.

Dalton said: "If I can correct you ... the guidelines were in fact initiated by the human rights commission ... we supported the human rights commission."

Looks like a contradiction, although whoever came up with the guideline idea it seems clear the human rights commission led the opaque consultation process & drafting of the document.

I asked the @AusHumanRights which agency began the project, and a spokeswoman said: "Sport Australia approached (us) with a request to develop the guidelines". So, it looks like Sport Australia's first answer was correct, and Dalton's correction was incorrect.

The next obvious question is what prompted Sport Australia to come up with the idea in the first place? Its written answer to Chandler, some months ago, was that it was not something thrust upon the world of sport by the peak government agency.

Rather, Sport Australia's guideline project was "in response to requests by sporting organisations for
support and guidance on legal obligations regarding discrimination as well as inclusive policies and practices".

How helpful is the guideline for sports, especially those that might wish to preserve female sport as a single-sex category, something in theory allowed under anti-discrimination law?
theaustralian.com.au/nation/call-fo…

It would be worth asking the "sporting organisations" who requested the guideline whether or not it has turned out to be what they hoped for. So, who were those organisations?

In October, Chandler asked Sport Australia's Dalton, who said: "I don't know which sports requested (the guideline)". Chandler: "Do you know of any other organisations that requested the guidelines?". Dalton: "No, I don't ... I know we were requested by sports to support them.."

Chandler asked him to check & report "the details of any organisation, sporting or otherwise, that requested (the guidelines)". She was "particularly interested" to know whether @PrideinSportAU was one of them. Answers to come. Dalton did not redirect question to the commission.

Is Pride in Sport what most people would regard as a "sporting organisation"? It is an arm of ACON, the old NSW AIDS Council, promotes self-identified trans rights and opposes any testosterone limits for transwomen in female sport.

Pride in Sport's advisory group includes Dalton's "inclusive sport director", Merrilee Barnes, whose bio says she led Sport Australia's collaborative effort to develop the guidelines. She gets no money for this, Sport Australia says.

I asked Sport Australia about Barnes' link to a group such as Pride in Sport & a spokeswoman said: "ACON’s Pride in Sport program helps sporting organisations by providing advice and guidance that can help them include people of all sexualities and genders."

Although Sport Australia & the human rights commission have refused to name the groups invited to help draft the guideline, an outfit called @proud2playinc has claimed it was involved.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/call-fo…

I asked Sport Minister Richard Colbeck which agency, Sport Australia or the human rights commission, had initiated the guideline & which groups had requested it but got no answer to those questions. His office did say sport bodies should maintain the "integrity of women's sport".