‘Adult female human’: Queensland government changes definition of woman

The Queensland government has stripped back its definition of a woman to focus on biological indicators, a question on notice tabled in state parliament has revealed.

On Monday, Minister for Women Fiona Simpson answered a question from Katter’s Australian Party state leader Robbie Katter asking her to outline the state’s definition for women, and whether transgender people were included in it.

Simpson said a transgender person was someone whose gender identity was the opposite of their birth gender, which she said would be male or female. A woman, Simpson said, “is an adult female human being”.

The former state Labor government used a different definition in its women and girls’ health strategy, released in October last year, that included “all people who identify as a woman or girl”.

The strategy referred to women’s healthcare issues in a way that included intersex women and gender-diverse people, and distinguished between sex and gender in what it called a “gender inclusivity approach”.

“You may see the words ‘males’ and ‘females’ through this document,” the strategy read.

“These terms typically describe data or research that is categorised by sex rather than gender.”

The current state government has faced continued scrutiny from parents of transgender children and community and activist groups over its decision to ban puberty blocker treatments for under-18-year-olds in state hospitals earlier this year.

On Wednesday, the mother of a transgender child took the state to court over the ban, claiming the bans had made gender-affirming care prohibitively expensive for many Queensland families.

The court heard the state had consulted with health administrators about the impacts of banning puberty blocker treatment in a 22-minute meeting on January 28, which occurred as the health minister publicly announced the ban.

The government has maintained its decision to pause, then remove, backing of puberty blocker treatments came from allegations of misconduct in Cairns.

Meanwhile, however, ministers have been criticised for borrowing anti-transgender terminology when discussing women’s healthcare.

In late August, Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm took a jab in parliament at former women’s minister Shannon Fentiman over the Labor Party’s approach to gender.

“[Fentiman was] the worst women’s minister in history, because to protect women, Mr Speaker, you need to know how to define a woman,” Camm said.

Variations of the phrase used by Camm are common among those critical of, or opposed to, the global rights push by the trans and gender-diverse community.

The comments were within days of Premier David Crisafulli urging LNP members “not be distracted by ideological issues”.

“We cannot be distracted by internal squabbles and we cannot be captured by those who seek to divide us,” he said.

Crisafulli also controversially banned parliamentary discussion on abortion shortly after coming into power in late 2024, after Katter indicated he would introduce bids to wind back access during the state election campaign.

Queensland introduced the ability to change the assigned sex on a person’s birth certificate in mid-2024, a move that could be undertaken by both adults and adolescents.

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