20,000 Sign Petition Amid Reports Female Prisoner Assaulted by Trans Inmate

Over 20,000 people have signed a petition calling for uniform nationwide rules to exclude biological men from women’s prisons.

The Women’s Forum Australia issued the call after reports emerged of a female inmate was allegedly sexually assaulted by a trans prisoner in Victoria in 2022.

On Feb. 6, the Herald Sun newspaper reported that the Allan Labor government had settled the lawsuit via an undisclosed sum to the female prisoner incarcerated at Tarrengower Women’s Prison.

The trans attacker transitioned after his 2009 murder conviction.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has yet to comment on the matter.

Women’s Forum Australia has questioned why the alleged offender was not charged and why the government has not been open around the incident.

“This case exposes a systemic failure that goes far beyond the assault,” CEO Rachael Wong said.

“The government knew in 2022 that a woman had been sexually assaulted by a male prisoner in a women’s prison and yet, years later, it is still allowing male offenders to be housed in women’s prisons.

“Why was this man not prosecuted? Why was the public kept in the dark? And why, knowing this assault occurred, did the government refuse to act on repeated calls by female inmates and advocates to restore single-sex prisons?”

The women’s rights group also highlighted the need for consistent laws across the states and territories to protect women in custody.

It cited a trail of concerning reports nationwide—from cases of women being left in cells with transgender inmates accused of assault, to what it described as “alarming” applications from violent male-born prisoners seeking transfers to women’s prisons.

“Across Australia, male offenders who identify as women are being housed in women’s prisons—placing some of the most vulnerable women in our nation at risk of sexual assault, intimidation, and trauma,” the group said in a statement supporting its petition calling for national action.

A federal government spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs reiterated to The Epoch Times that state and territory governments were responsible for policies related to corrective services.

How Do the States and Territories Measure Up?

In Victoria and South Australia, current policy allows male-to-female trans to be housed in women’s jails.

Women’s advocates say they have sought clarity on policy in Western Australia and New South Wales, especially around whether sex self-ID laws could be a factor in which prisons biological men are housed in.

In Queensland and the Northern Territory, prisoners are housed in prisons that align with their birth sex.

The Australian Capital Territory generally allows transgender prisoners to be housed in accordance with their gender identity, subject to risk and safety assessments.

Meanwhile, the guidelines (pdf) for Tasmania’s prison service state that “transgender, transsexual and intersex prisoners have the right to be housed in a correctional facility appropriate to their gender of identification,” provided that safety, security or the good order of the prison is not compromised.