Health Minister Mark Butler has defended world swimming governing body FINA’s decision to effectively ban transgender athletes from competing, saying elite sports had to weigh “factors of strength and stamina” when deciding who could participate.
“Ultimately, sports governing bodies need to govern the operations of their sport, particularly at an elite level,” Butler told the ABC on Tuesday.
Mark Butler deferred to sporting authorities on the matter of transgender participation.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“Sports have had the legal tools available to them for many years here in Australia, to make decisions about participation in their sport, particularly where their sport involves factors of strength and stamina. And that’s apparently happened at a global level in relation to swimming. So that’s as it should be.”
FINA announced on Monday that it had decided transgender athletes could only compete in women’s swimming events if they had completed their transition by age 12, meaning they would need to have taken puberty blockers from a young age.
International Rugby League announced on Tuesday it will follow FINA’s lead and the NRL is weighing its position.
Butler said transgender sporting rules were part of “a highly sensitive debate that needs to be conducted as respectfully as possible”.
“We need to be very careful not to politicise [this debate], and not to put vulnerable Australians in the middle of a political debate,” he said.
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Asked if Australia should invest more in transgender medical research to enable sporting bodies to inform their decisions with better science, Butler said research expenditure was decided by independent experts “in a peer-reviewed way, rather than politicians making decisions about a particular research project.”
On the rising COVID-19 cases and ongoing pandemic death toll, Butler said Australia still had “quite a way to get through this pandemic” and that he wanted to improve booster rates, particularly in aged care.
Butler said COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 could be approved within weeks, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration currently assessing Moderna’s application for its jab to be approved for this age group.
“It’s appropriate that those authorities feel that they are able to conduct their work, their legislative work, in a timeframe that’s proper,” he said. “And I’d expect that to happen over coming weeks.”