Australia’s controversial far-left Sex Discrimination Commissioner has denied sex is biological while condemning common sense proposed legal changes that would use biological sex to define who is male or female.
Dr Anna Cody, who rakes in a taxpayer-funded salary of more than $400,000 a year in her role at the left-wing Australian Human Rights Commission, has previously claimed to not know what the term “biological man” means, and supports giving children dangerous hormone and puberty blocker drugs.
She sparked global ridicule last month by defending protecting men who claim to be women against pregnancy-related discrimination in the workplace in the Senate, where her boss, AHRC President Hugh de Krester, defined word “woman” as “an adult female human, and includes a transgender woman”.
Farcical scenes in parliament as Australia’s far-left Sex Discrimination Commissioner defends extending pregnancy protections to men who claim to be women.
Follow: @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/qQrcPHxdTT
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) May 26, 2026
In response to Dr Cody’s comments and the fallout from a Federal Court decision finding a male who claims to be female was discriminated against by being barred from women-only social media app Giggle, Nationals MP Alison Penfold introduced a private member’s bill aiming to change the Sex Discrimination Act.
The Act was changed in 2013 to include attributes of “gender identity”, “sexual orientation”, “intersex status” and “relationship status” and remove definitions of man and woman, and Ms Penfold’s bill seeks to reinstate the legal definition of a woman, and define man and woman by biological sex rather than identity.
But Dr Cody, who supported “Roxanne” Tickle in his lawsuit against Giggle and found Sall Grover, told ABC News the changes would be a “retrograde step” for all women, who according to the AHRC’s far-left definition include men who claim to be women, and said her office was not consulted on the bill.
“The women’s movement has fought for centuries to avoid being defined only by biology,” she said.
“We know that being a woman has many aspects to it, and that biological aspect is one part of it, but not the entirety of it.”
Dr Cody also claimed the bill sent a message to so-called transgender people that “they’re not welcome, their needs aren’t important, and that their right to be welcome and included in society is not being respected”.
She then denied that women were at risk from male predators pretending to be women in places like bathrooms, saying was was “absolutely no research, no evidence that demonstrates that enabling trans women (sic) to use those spaces, that there is a greater risk of danger”.
Australia’s far-left Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody, who earns a taxpayer-funded salary of $408,000 a year, claims she “doesn’t understand the term ‘biological men'”. pic.twitter.com/1vLzajRP3Q
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) October 8, 2025
The ABC News article went on to quote two far-left activists, and presenting no opposing views from women’s rights activists.
Ms Penfold said after tabling her bill that it would restore sex-based protections for women and girls under Australian law.
“Sex is biological and binary and should not be ambiguous. The Bill will also include explicit protections for female services, spaces, and activities,” she said.
“This issue doesn’t just impact women, it also impacts men. Women and men’s groups have a right to feel safe and it is crucial we can live in a respectful society where that remains the case.”
Header image: Left, Dr Anna Cody (AHRC). Right, Mr Tickle (Instagram).
