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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (13 March) . . Page.. 1071 ..
MR STANHOPE
(Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Community Affairs and Minister for the Environment) (5.29): I will, for the record, speak to these amendments, Mr Speaker. I think it is important. The government will support each of these amendments. As Ms Dundas has indicated, these are a significant and important raft of amendments to the legislation as initially introduced. They respond to representations received by members of the Assembly.The range of amendments Ms Dundas has moved, and to which I am speaking, goes to the definition of transgender person. It is complementary to the definition of transgender person. It inserts a new definition of intersex person. As Ms Dundas indicated, I think all members and all offices received significant support, advice and assistance from the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group of Australia in relation to this range of issues.
As I said, the amendments go to the definition of intersex person. The amendments omit the interpretive provisions relating to opposite sex and same sex for a transgender person. They include a new provision in each of the relevant acts and regulations, to the effect that a transgender or intersex person may nominate the gender of the person by whom they wish to be searched.
These amendments address the fact that it is not always appropriate for a transgender person or an intersex person to be searched by a person who is of the same sex as the sex with which the transgender or intersex person identifies. The amendments also recognise that, depending on their individual circumstances, a transgender or intersex person may or may not feel comfortable being searched by a person of the same gender as their identified gender. For example, a female to male transgender person may feel far less threatened if searched by a woman.
The amendments to the search provisions also recognise that there may be circumstances where a transgender or intersex person does not identify as either male or female, so it may not be possible for such a person to be searched by a person of the same sex. To address these issues, these amendments provide that a transgender or intersex person may nominate whether they wish to be searched by a male or female. While this is a departure from the general policy that a person should be searched by a person of the same sex, I believe-and all members believe-it is justified in the case of transgender and intersex persons, because of the issues body searches may pose.
Further amendments omit part 1.3 of the schedule, as a consequence of the Discrimination Amendment Bill being debated after this piece of legislation. Similarly, there are amendments that omit the interpretive provisions relating to opposite sex and same sex for a transgender person. These include a new provision in each of the relevant acts and regulations to the effect that a transgender person and an intersex person may nominate the gender of the person by whom they wish to be searched.
The final amendment includes an intersex person in the amendments made to the Remand Centres Regulations of 1976. Regulation 10 relates to accommodation. Sub-regulation 5 requires that sleeping quarters occupied by male detainees should be segregated from sleeping quarters occupied by female detainees. The amendment inserts
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