Sponsor speech Supports
Alex Antic
Antic strongly supports the bill and says it is needed to protect children from gender transition treatments he считает harmful and irreversible.
Read in Hansard ↗Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition
Current status
This bill did not become law and is no longer proceeding.
Policy area
Health, care & disability
What does this bill do?
The bill would ban registered health practitioners from giving under-18s medical treatments intended to change their biological sex, except in limited medically verified situations.
Why was it introduced?
A sharp rise in minors attending gender clinics and receiving puberty-suppressing drugs was presented as evidence that children were being left open to harmful treatment and later detransitionThe process of reversing or undoing earlier gender transition steps, which the bill’s supporters cite as a harm they want to prevent.. The bill responds by banning practitioners from providing under-18s with medical gender-transition treatments, with limited exemptions, and by requiring licence cancellation and stopping CommonwealthThe federal government, which the bill would stop from funding banned treatments through grants or arrangements. funding for breaches.
Broader context
Public gender-clinic use by minors was presented by the bill's backers as rising sharply, with the explanatory memorandumThe companion note that explains what the bill is meant to do and why its supporters say it is needed. citing figures that attendances at Australian public clinics grew from 211 in 2014 to 2,067 in 2021 and prescriptions for puberty-suppressing drugs rose from five in 2014 to 624 in 2019. The bill was introduced on 18 October 2023 as a response to that reported growth and concerns about harm and detransitionThe process of reversing or undoing earlier gender transition steps, which the bill’s supporters cite as a harm they want to prevent., proposing bans on medical gender-transition treatment for under-18s and funding penalties, but it did not pass and lapsed when Parliament ended on 21 July 2025.
Key criticism
The collected bill material does not include detailed opposition speeches or submissions explaining the case against the bill. The Senate division shows the bill lacked enough support to proceed, but this page does not infer senators’ reasons without source evidence.
Who supported it?
Senator Alex Antic introduced this bill. It was supported by Liberal Party, Nationals, One Nation, UAP, some crossbench members; opposed by Labor, Greens, Jacqui Lambie Network, some crossbench members; and did not pass.
Introduced in Senate 18 Oct 2023
Failed in Senate 21 July 2025
Did not reach House —
Did not become law —
Did it become law?
No
The bill did not complete passage through Parliament.
Final passage
Did not pass
1 recorded vote before the bill stopped proceeding
Time before failure
642 days
From introduction to the final recorded step before the bill stopped proceeding
Meaning
What does this bill do?
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The bill would ban registered health practitioners from giving under-18s medical treatments intended to change their biological sex, except in limited medically verified situations.
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The bill would treat surgeries and drugs that can cause temporary or permanent infertility as banned treatments when they are used to change a child’s biological sex.
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The bill would let puberty treatment continue for early puberty and some medically necessary care for children with verified genetic or sex development conditions if a parent or guardian agrees.
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The bill would require a health practitioner registration boardThe licensing body that would have to cancel a practitioner’s registration after notice from the minister. to cancel a practitioner's registration if the Health MinisterThe federal minister who would decide whether a practitioner breached the bill and notify the board. notifies the board that the practitioner breached the ban.
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The bill would stop the CommonwealthThe federal government, which the bill would stop from funding banned treatments through grants or arrangements. funding hospitals, practitioners, medical schools, states, territories or others that provide or help provide banned treatments to minors.
Show source excerpts
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The intention of this Bill is to prohibit health practitioners from performing gender clinical interventions which are intended to transition a minor’s biological sex, subject to limited and medically verifiable and necessary exemptions.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum -
The Bill sets out a non-exhaustive list of prohibited gender clinical interventions which are intended to transition a minor’s biological sex to include various surgeries, as well as the prescription of drugs that induce transient or permanent infertility.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum -
Subclause 8(3) provides an exception, in circumstances where, with the consent of a minor’s parent or legal guardian, puberty suppression treatment is provided to a minor for the purposes of normalising puberty for a minor experiencing precocious puberty, or procedures or treatments that are appropriate and medically necessary are provided for a child born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder or sex development or who does not have the typical sex chromosome structure for male or female as determined by a physician through genetic testing.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum -
Subclause 11(4) provides that if a health practitioner board receives written notice from the Minister under subclause 11(3), the health practitioner board must cancel the registration of the health practitioner.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum -
Subclause 12(1) prohibits the Commonwealth entering into an arrangement involving the expenditure or payment of money which is proposed to be used by, granted, paid, or distributed to any health care provider, medical school, hospital, health practitioner, State or Territory or any other entity, organisation, or individual that provides or facilitates the provision of a procedure or treatment to a minor that is prohibited under Clause 8.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum
Context
Broader context for this bill
Public gender-clinic use by minors was presented by the bill's backers as rising sharply, with the explanatory memorandumThe companion note that explains what the bill is meant to do and why its supporters say it is needed. citing figures that attendances at Australian public clinics grew from 211 in 2014 to 2,067 in 2021 and prescriptions for puberty-suppressing drugs rose from five in 2014 to 624 in 2019. The bill was introduced on 18 October 2023 as a response to that reported growth and concerns about harm and detransitionThe process of reversing or undoing earlier gender transition steps, which the bill’s supporters cite as a harm they want to prevent., proposing bans on medical gender-transition treatment for under-18s and funding penalties, but it did not pass and lapsed when Parliament ended on 21 July 2025.
- 2014
Australian public gender clinics recorded a low starting base
The explanatory memorandumThe companion note that explains what the bill is meant to do and why its supporters say it is needed. says 211 children were attending public gender clinics in Australia in 2014, setting the baseline later used to argue that treatment numbers had surged.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum ↗ - 2019
Use of puberty-suppressing drugs for minors climbed sharply
The explanatory memorandumThe companion note that explains what the bill is meant to do and why its supporters say it is needed. says prescriptions for under-18s receiving puberty suppressing drugs rose from five in 2014 to 624 in 2019, which supporters cited as evidence of expanding medical intervention.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum ↗ - 2021
Attendance at public gender clinics reached more than 2,000 young people
The explanatory memorandumThe companion note that explains what the bill is meant to do and why its supporters say it is needed. says 2,067 young people were attending Australian public gender clinics in 2021, almost 10 times the 2014 figure.
Childhood Gender Transition Prohibition explanatory memorandum ↗ - 18 Oct 2023
Bill introduced to ban medical gender-transition treatment for minors
Senators introduced the bill with a second reading speech arguing it would stop practitioners and CommonwealthThe federal government, which the bill would stop from funding banned treatments through grants or arrangements.-funded bodies from providing gender clinical interventions to minors.
Hansard ↗ - 21 July 2025
The bill lapsed at the end of Parliament
The proposal did not complete its passage and fell away when the parliamentary term ended.
Parliamentary timeline ↗
Legislative route
How did it move through Parliament?
House Senate
Introduced 18 Oct 2023
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Introduced and read a first time
Second reading opened 18 Oct 2023
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Second reading moved
Lapsed at end of Parliament 21 July 2025
The bill reached this recorded parliamentary step.
Key criticism
The main case against this bill
The collected bill material does not include detailed opposition speeches or submissions explaining the case against the bill. The Senate division shows the bill lacked enough support to proceed, but this page does not infer senators’ reasons without source evidence.
Criticism is not well evidenced in the scoped corpus; the main recorded limit is the defeated second-reading vote.
Votes
Recorded votes
How the bill itself passed
These were the main recorded votes on the bill.
Defeated Senate cleared second reading
Defeated 26 to 33. Support came from Liberal Party, Nationals, One Nation, and UAP. Opposition came from Labor, Greens, Jacqui Lambie Network, and minorA person under 18, who is the group the bill seeks to protect from the banned treatments. parties and independents. Minor-party and independent votes were split.
Defeated
Senate cleared second reading
Party Aye / No
Labor 0 / 17
Liberal Party 15 / 0
Greens 0 / 10
Unknown 4 / 3
Nationals 5 / 0
Independent 0 / 2
Jacqui Lambie Network 0 / 1
One Nation 1 / 0
UAP 1 / 0
These are votes on the bill itself rather than amendment votes.
Parliamentary debate
Who spoke, and what they said
Start here — lead voices
All speeches by bloc
Coalition
1 speaker · 1 support
Coalition
1 speaker · 1 support
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Alex Antic ★ Antic strongly supports the bill and says it is needed to protect children from gender transition treatments he считает harmful and irreversible.
“It is for all of these reasons that I am introducing this Bill in the hopes that this Parliament will take the right course of action and protect our young people. If a person is under 18 in Australia, they are forbidden from buying alcoholic drinks, buying cigarettes, buying R-rated media, and getting a tattoo. If they are under 16, they are forbidden from driving a car. Yet we are placing children on puberty-suppressing drugs which stunt their physical development due to what may accurately be described as a social contagion and a symptom of underlying mental health issues. This contradiction reveals a society that is failing to protect its children.”
Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
Record
Full record
- Status
- Not Proceeding -- Collected from the APH bill page.
- Originating house
- Senate
- 18 Oct 2023
Senate · Introduced and read a first time
Introduced
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
- 18 Oct 2023
Senate · Second reading moved
Second reading opened
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
- 21 July 2025
Senate · Lapsed at end of Parliament
Lapsed at end of Parliament
The bill reached this recorded parliamentary step.