The Australian Human Rights Commission report Equal Identities
A human rights review of the experiences
of trans and gender diverse people in Australia features the following recommendations
Recommendation 1
Federal, state and territory
governments should introduce
consistent legislation to protect
LGBTIQA+ people and their associates
from vilification, incitement of hatred
and threats of physical harm.
b. develop initiatives to build
workforce capacity and
understanding of how intersecting
forms of discrimination can affect
trans and gender diverse people’s
experiences of domestic, family
and sexual violence
Governments should design these
laws in consultation with LGBTIQA+
communities, including trans and
gender diverse communities, and
should include both civil prohibitions
and criminal offences.
c. strengthen relationships and cross-
capacity building between the
DFSVC, crisis response services
and trans and gender diverse
stakeholders.
Recommendation 2
The Australian Government Department
of Social Services should require and
report on LGBTIQA+ and trans and
gender diverse representation in their
workforce and on key advisory groups,
committees and rapid reviews in key
areas such as housing, domestic, sexual
and family violence prevention, and
community services.
The Australian Government Attorney
General’s Department, along with
state and territory governments,
should establish LGBTIQA+ justice
working groups that include trans
and gender diverse representation.
The working groups should protect
the human rights of trans and gender
diverse people by:
a. working with criminal justice
systems (police, courts and prison
systems) to design and monitor
policies and practices
b. working with the trans and gender diverse community to develop methods to identify and track hate crimes, including community reporting mechanisms
Recommendation 3 The Domestic, Family and Sexual
Violence Commission (DFSVC) should
establish an ongoing LGBTIQA+
working group, including trans and
gender diverse representation, to:
a. c. advancing priority areas of
justice and law reform, including
decriminalisation of appropriate
offences, justice reinvestment and
measures to address and prevent
discriminatory behaviours.
provide advice on initiatives to
prevent and respond to gender-
based violence, including
implementation of the National Plan
to End Violence Against Women and
Children 2022–2032
Recommendation 5
Federal, state and territory
governments should provide
sustainable, targeted funding to
address capacity gaps in legal service
provision for trans and gender diverse
people, as identified in the 2025 report
‘A Blueprint for Equality: Resourcing
LGBTIQA+ Community Legal Centres’.
Recommendation 6
Federal, state and territory
governments should ensure crisis
accommodation and homelessness
support services offer inclusive
support and are adequately funded
to do so. This includes increasing
sector-wide awareness, understanding
and capabilities about intersecting
marginalisations which affect trans
and gender diverse people from
diverse backgrounds.
Recommendation 7
All government, government-affiliated
and government-funded bodies that
collect demographic data should
ensure data on gender, sexuality and
innate variations of sex characteristics
(sometimes known as intersex
variations) is collected in line with
the ABS Standard for Sex, Gender,
Variations of Sex Characteristics and
Sexual Orientation Variables (2020).
This includes:
a. collecting data on gender identity
from everybody to ensure that
health and support services have
the data necessary to meet the
needs of trans and gender diverse
children and adolescents
b. implementing new data collection
protocols in partnership with
LGBTIQA+ and trans and gender
diverse specific organisations to
establish community trust and
ensure privacy and sensitivity
concerns are understood.
Recommendation 8
The Australian Government
Department of Health, Disability
and Ageing should require and
report on LGBTIQA+ and trans and
gender diverse representation in their
workforce and on key advisory groups,
committees and rapid reviews. The
Department should also establish a
specific ongoing LGBTIQA+ Health
Advisory Group to:
a. provide advice on matters relating
to trans and gender diverse health,
and LGBTIQA+ health more broadly
b. provide advice on relevant
government initiatives affecting
LGBTIQA+ communities, such as
the National Suicide Prevention
Strategy 2025-2035 and the
National Action Plan for the Health
and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People
2025–2035
c. advise on LGBTIQA+ health data
collection and contribute to the
continuous improvement of the
Health Data Portal and key national
data sets.
Recommendation 9 Federal, state and territory
governments should reduce barriers
that prevent trans and gender diverse
people from accessing all forms
of healthcare, including gender-
affirming healthcare. Reducing
barriers includes:
a. increasing staff and service
resourcing to meet urgent needs
on existing waitlists for publicly
funded hospitals and clinics b. running proactive public awareness campaigns that address misinformation and disinformation which target trans and gender diverse people’s healthcare
Recommendation 10 Federal, state and territory
governments should introduce or
amend legislation to ban conversion or
suppression practices. This legislation
should follow the following principles:
c. funding service access for trans
and gender diverse people
in remote, rural and regional
communities.
a. design the legislative framework
in consultation with survivors of
conversion or suppression practices. b. apply the ban on conversion and suppression practices to both religious and secular settingsRecommendation 11 Healthcare providers and education and training institutions (i.e. universities, TAFEs) should ensure that all healthcare and healthcare-adjacent workers and students receive education and ongoing professional development on inclusive care for trans and gender diverse people. This includes awareness of how intersecting forms of discrimination can affect trans and gender diverse people’s health and access to healthcare services.
Recommendation 12
b. apply the ban on conversion and
suppression practices to both
religious and secular settings
Federal, state and territory
governments should:
c. make it unlawful to take someone
out of the jurisdiction for conversion
or suppression practices
a. end pauses on puberty
suppressants and other hormone
therapies for children and young
people
d. allow reporting by third parties
e. carefully define and provide
examples of what is and is not a
conversion or suppression practice
f. b. ensure that, in line with other areas
of adolescent medicine, Gillick
competence and clinical standards
of care are the framework guiding
the provision of healthcare to trans
and gender diverse children and
young people.
include an education plan which
covers:
i. who is protected by the law
ii. how to identify conversion or
suppression practices
iii. awareness of harm caused
by conversion or suppression
practices.
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Recommendation 13
The Australian Government should
repeal Section 43A of the Sex
Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).
Recommendation 14
The Australian Government should:
a. amend section 37(1)(d) and
repeal section 38 of the Sex
Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth)
and make consequential
amendments to the Fair Work
Act 2009 (Cth), as recommended
by the Australian Law Reform
Commission in its 2024 report
‘Maximising the Realisation
of Human Rights: Religious
Educational Institution and Anti-
Discrimination Laws’
b. request the Australian Law
Reform Commission to
further review and make
recommendations about how
to amend the exemption for
religious bodies under section
37(1)(d) of the Sex Discrimination
Act 1984 (Cth).
Recommendation 15
State and territory governments
should review and amend their anti-
discrimination legislation to ensure
that trans and gender diverse
people have equal access to
publicly funded services, including
those provided by religious bodies.
Recommendation 16
The Australian Government Department of
Education should require LGBTIQA+ and
trans and gender diverse representation
on key advisory groups, committees and
rapid reviews. The Department should also
establish an LGBTIQA+ Youth Advisory
Group to provide input into:
a. education policy settings
b. the role of teachers
c. curriculum content
d. targeted anti-bullying program support.
Recommendation 17
Federal, state and territory education
departments should review their current
policies, practices and curricula to ensure
that they support an inclusive model. This
model should embed inclusion of trans and
gender diverse students as part of teacher
training and professional development for
all staff across all levels of government
funded education institutions.
Recommendation 18
Educational institutions receiving government
funding should have policies to prevent
discrimination and harassment of trans and
gender diverse students, staff and parents.
Recommendation 19
The Australian Government should expand
the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination
Act 1984 (Cth) to cover protected
attributes outlined in sections 5A, 5B and
5C of the Act.