Angus Taylor vows to change sex discrimination laws after Tickle v Giggle court ruling
Liberal leader Angus Taylor has vowed to redesign Australia’s sex discrimination laws after a female app founder lost her appeal against a transgender woman.
On Friday, the Full Court of the Federal Court ruled in favor of trans woman Roxanne Tickle, finding that women-only app founder Sall Grover directly discriminated against her when he chose to remove Ms Tickle from the Giggles for Girls network app.
Ms Grover appealed to the court in 2025 following the Federal Court’s decision the previous year, which found that Ms Tickle had indirectly discriminated against her and ordered her to pay $10,000 in damages.
The Full Court set aside the original decision, instead finding that Ms Grover had twice directly discriminated against Ms Tickle and now ordered her to pay double the damages, increasing her dues to $20,000.
Ms Tickle was granted access to the app following approval of a test of artificial intelligence software designed to filter out male users.
However, Ms. Grover personally removed him after seeing his profile in 2021.
On Saturday morning, Mr Taylor posted a statement on Facebook claiming that changing existing sex discrimination laws would be a “first-term priority”.
“Yesterday the Federal Court confirmed that Australian law does not properly protect single-sex spaces for women and girls,” he wrote.
“Most Australians find this hard to believe. A coalition government under my leadership will solve this.
“We will amend the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure that women and girls (and men and boys) have protections based on biological sex.
“We will define biological sex in law. Male or female. The sex you were born with. And we will protect single-sex spaces throughout Australian life.”
Mr Taylor claimed the remarks were not aimed at Australian transgender people.
“This is not radical. It’s common sense,” he said.
“Let me be clear about what this is not. This is not about targeting Australian transgender people.
“All the protections they currently have remain. We are not taking away one protection from anyone. But we also recognize something that should never be in doubt: biological sex is real, it matters, and women and girls deserve spaces where that is respected.”
“The Prime Minister now has a simple question to answer: Does he believe that women and girls deserve protection based on biological sex?”
The court decision drew both praise and criticism from politicians and advocacy groups alike.
While the Australian Human Rights Commission welcomed the decision, chairman Hugh de Krester said many people still faced discrimination.
“We welcome the Federal Court’s interpretation of this protection in its decision,” he said after Friday’s decision.
Equality Australia legal director Heather Corkhill said on Friday that the ruling confirmed the “reality and existence” of transgender Australians.
“This decision confirms that all women deserve to live free from discrimination, without being judged based on appearance, presentation or perceptions,” she said.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson posted on social media on Friday saying she was “disgusted” by the decision and vowed to “support” Ms Grover in parliament.
