A set of "internationally significant" laws that will ban deferrable medical interventions for intersex people in the ACT until they are able to consent will offer a blueprint for other states and territories to adopt, Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said.
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Mr Barr introduced the Variations in Sex Characteristics (Restricted Medical Treatment) Bill to the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, noting in an emotional speech the bill had been developed over four years of consultation which would be at the forefront of national and international reforms.
"Central to the reform I introduce today is the principle that people, including children, should always be involved in decisions about irreversible and non-urgent medical interventions made to their bodies," Mr Barr said.
The laws, which must be considered by the Assembly's scrutiny processes before they are expected to pass with government support, would allow urgent, non-deferrable medical interventions to continue.
The bill defines a variation in sex characteristics as "a congenital condition that involves atypical sex characteristics", and will ban treatments that can be deferred until that person is able to consent to the treatments.
The bill will also create two new offences, making it illegal for a person to undertake an unapproved medical treatment covered by the legislation or to arrange for an unapproved restricted medical treatment, including by taking a person out of the ACT to have the treatment.
Morgan Carpenter, the executive director of Intersex Human Rights Australia, said people with innate variations of sex characteristics had long been fighting to protect their human rights in medical settings.
"We want to make sure that every jurisdiction in Australia will adopt similar legislation so that we achieve national consistency. The leadership of this government, I think, is a beacon for other jurisdictions to follow. And we look forward to engaging with them to achieve the same kinds of fundamental human rights protections," Mr Carpenter said.
A Gender Agenda executive director Vik Fraser said it was a huge and positive step forward to embed the medical treatment of children born with innate variations of sex characteristics into a human rights framework.
"Individuals should have the right to informed medical consent, and allowing deferrable and irreversible surgery on children and infants goes against this framework, with the potential for far-reaching implications," Dr Fraser said.
"We welcome this move by the ACT government to ensure that children born with innate variations of sex characteristics will have the ability to make their own decisions about their bodies, based on individual values and in accordance with human rights."
The bill would create an independent assessment board to oversee treatment plans for intersex children in the ACT; the board must have members with experience or expertise in psychosocial support, human rights, medicine, ethics and "lived experience of variation in sex characteristics".
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Treatment plans will need to be approved by a committee of the board, with separate plans for classes of people and for individuals.
"In considering either a general or individual treatment plan, the legislation will require committees to approve plans where all the necessary criteria are met. ... Their role is not to determine the best treatment for an individual, but to check that any proposed treatments will be consistent with the criteria intended to protect people with variations in sex characteristics," the government's explanatory statement said.
Mr Barr, speaking outside the Assembly, said the bill had a built-in review after two years, and the government intended to build on the legislation so it remained a best-practice model.
Mr Barr said he hoped the Assembly would be able to vote on the bill "sooner rather than later" because "people have been waiting a long time for this".
"Politics is a bruising game. People are rightly cynical at times about what happens or doesn't happen in Australian politics, but I do want to hold this up as a case study: politicians listening and acting, and I hope it restores some confidence in the capacity for that to happen," he said.
People who are intersex are born with sex characteristics which do not fit usual binary definitions of male or female bodies, and experts estimate up to 1.7 per cent of the population are born with intersex characteristics, the United Nations has said.
Mr Barr announced last month the introduction of the laws while speaking on a panel at a human rights conference at Sydney World Pride.
The Victorian government has announced its intention to ending harmful medical interventions on intersex people without personal consent.
The Australian Human Rights Commission in October 2021 told all states and territories to prevent the unnecessary and harmful medical interventions.
The consequences of the procedures include a loss of sexual function, loss of fertility, a loss of autonomy, incorrect gender assignment and the need for ongoing medical treatment, the commission said.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
