Kirralie Smith stood on the Victorian Parliament steps on Saturday, metres from a trans rights counter protest, and told the first Fix the SDA rally that the $95,000 she's been ordered to pay remains unpaid, and that the laws which produced the order "defy reality".
The rally was the opening event of a national campaign to restore the biological definitions of "man" and "woman" to the Sex Discrimination Act. Organisers announced Sall Grover, whose Giggle v Tickle case is headed for a High Court special leave decision, would address the crowd by recorded message.
Ms Smith, the Binary Australia spokeswoman fighting a six figure vilification penalty of her own, put the campaign's argument in the bluntest terms of the day.
"Once upon a time, slavery was lawful. The law was wrong. Once upon a time, racism and apartheid were lawful. The law was wrong. Today, in 2026, right here in Australia, it is lawful for men to say that they're women, but that law is wrong. No human can change sex. These laws defy reality, and they will not remain."
Video: Kirralie Smith, via X. Kirralie Smith delivers her speech at the Fix the SDA rally on the Victorian Parliament steps in Melbourne.
Julia Gillard started this. This week she called it 'a different time'
Every case named on those steps traces back to one amendment. It was Julia Gillard's government that deleted the definitions of "man" and "woman" from the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013, the change Australian courts now read as putting gender identity ahead of biological sex. Confronted at Manchester University this week, Ms Gillard defended it as the product of "a different time".
Pro women protesters have chased her across Britain with a banner calling her the "Destroyer of Women's Rights". Australia's first female prime minister removed the word from the law, and 13 years later Australian women are standing on parliament steps fighting to get it back.
Ordered to pay $95,000 and to apologise. She told the rally she hasn't paid a cent
The NSW Local Court found last year that Ms Smith unlawfully vilified two transgender soccer players in posts on X, and in December ordered her to pay $95,000 across the two complainants plus a public apology, with the sum to double if unpaid within 28 days. She won a stay of the orders on New Year's Eve and her appeal is before the NSW Supreme Court.
Today, she told the crowd she used images the football club itself had published, never named the players, and posted them as part of registered political campaigning to ask why males were playing in women's competitions. She said the courtroom experience included everyone being directed to refer to the players as she and her, and described the orders against her as contradictory, telling the crowd she's barred from identifying the players while also being ordered to post publicly about the case across her platforms.
"Make it make sense."
Smith drew the direct line to the Giggle case. Sall Grover built Giggle for Girls as a women only app and removed Roxanne Tickle, who was born male and identifies as a woman, after reviewing the photo Tickle submitted. Because the amended Act no longer defines “woman”, the Federal Court found that was unlawful gender identity discrimination, and in May the Full Federal Court upheld the finding and doubled the damages to $20,000. Ms Smith told the rally she faces nearly five times that figure.
A trans rights counter protest took the same steps 30 minutes earlier
Trans Queer Solidarity and the Trans Action Network called a "Smash Transphobia" counter protest for 11:30am on the same steps, half an hour ahead of the women's rally, describing the campaign as a "bigoted far-right transphobic coalition". Barriers separated the two groups and the rally went ahead uninterrupted, with Ms Smith speaking beside a placard reading "It's not a culture war, it's a war on women".
Brisbane gets Sall Grover in person and Pauline Hanson on 12 July
The campaign now moves to Brisbane, where a rally in Queens Gardens on Sunday 12 July will hear from Ms Grover in person, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, Brisbane child psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer and Greens co-founder Drew Hutton, with organisers flagging an Adelaide event later in July. Ms Hanson has already put a bill before the Senate to restore the definitions, Nationals MP Alison Penfold has a private member's bill to the same effect.
The collision the campaign describes is already live in the rally's host state, where a trans identifying paedophile is suing the Allan government over being moved out of a women's prison.
Ms Smith closed with instructions for the women in front of her.
"Don't be chilled, my friends. Get hot, stand up, speak out."
Her appeal sits with the NSW Supreme Court. Ms Grover's sits with the High Court. Either way, the fight over one deleted word is no longer confined to courtrooms.
