Liberal Party Senator for Tasmania Claire Chandler has drawn the ire of her parliamentary colleagues after she asked voters to contribute to an anti-trans “Action Fund” that she says will be used to fight “radical” politicians, activists and lobbyists on tentpole “free speech” causes.
In an email to constituents sent Friday morning, Chandler called on voters to make donations to the $27,000 fund, which she said would help her amplify the voices of those whose “opinion” and “rights” are “of no interest” to the nation’s leaders.
“If you don’t have the right opinions, if you don’t know the right journalists, if you don’t follow the right people on Twitter, you’re not getting a look in with those running the country,” Chandler wrote.
“That’s where I come in. I’m prepared to ask questions that others aren’t asking and raise issues that the mainstream media insists aren’t allowed to be raised.”
Chandler, an outspoken anti-trans and free speech advocate, went on to remind voters of her record of fighting for the exclusion of transgender women in women’s sport, and repeated unproven claims that she had tried to stop authorities from putting “male sex offenders in women’s prison and letting convicted child sex offenders change their name and identity”.
Senator Chandler did not respond to questions from Crikey about how the funds would be used or whether any transparency measures had been put in place in the event the funds aren’t used in their entirety.
Throughout the year, the senator has positioned herself as a key figure in the import of US-style culture wars.
In February, she was left unable to answer questions about who exactly was calling for transgender people to be excluded from women’s sports in Tasmania, as she was campaigning aggressively for amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act.
In the months since, she has gone on to accuse bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Services Australia of being “woke activists” over a decision to favour the words “pregnant person” over “mother” in a vaccination guide, and attacked the ABC for reporting on transgender women in sport.
Greens Senator and justice spokesperson David Shoebridge told Crikey Chandler’s efforts to get voters to fund her campaigning will only give more money to “powerful people” to hurt young people and their families.
“The activists being attacked here are mainly young trans and gender diverse people, their loving families and communities — a politician seeking to drum up funding to ramp up attacks on ordinary people is plain wrong,” Shoebridge said.
Greens MP Stephen Bates told Crikey Chandler’s calls are yet another reminder of the ways the Coalition have used “trans people as a political football to manufacture outrage for their own gain”, which in part cost them the election.
