Family First National Director Lyle Shelton is calling on the NSW Government to immediately scrap $3.2 million in funding for a new, statewide LGBTQIA+ legal service and instead order a full audit of every government-funded legal centre in NSW to identify how taxpayer money is being used to bankroll activist litigation.
The NSW Government this week confirmed the Inner City Legal Centre (ICLC) will receive $800,000 a year for four years to run the state’s first dedicated, statewide LGBTQIA+ legal service, expanding from Sydney’s inner city to regional and remote NSW by 2027.
“Just last month the NSW Supreme Court upheld a $95,000 vilification bill against Kirralie Smith for saying men can’t play women’s football,” said Mr Shelton. “That is exactly the kind of case NSW taxpayers are now being forced to bankroll a permanent legal army to bring. If you’re a mum, a dad, a grandparent, a footy coach or a schoolteacher who says what everyone already knows to be true, you are now the target.”
Ms Smith, founder of women’s rights group Binary Australia, was found to have unlawfully vilified two transgender competitors under the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act’s vilification provisions after saying they should not compete in women’s football. A Local Court ordered her to pay $55,000 and $40,000 respectively to the two complainants; the NSW Supreme Court dismissed her appeal in late July, upholding the full $95,000 bill.
“Family First warned exactly this would happen when we opposed Alex Greenwich’s Equality Bill in 2023,” said Mr Shelton. “We said these laws would be used to hunt down mums and dads for stating basic biological facts, and now we’re watching it happen in real time — while the Government hands another $3.2 million to build the legal machine that does the hunting.”
Mr Shelton, who is running for the NSW Legislative Council, says he has direct, personal experience of how taxpayer-linked legal outfits are turned against ordinary Australians who hold mainstream views.
“I’ve spent six years and counting fighting a vilification complaint brought with the backing of groups including Equality Australia and the LGBTI Legal Service, simply for criticising a drag event,” said Mr Shelton. “I know from bitter personal experience what happens when activism gets dressed up as legal aid. Kirralie Smith now knows it too, to the tune of $95,000. Multiply that by every mum and dad this new taxpayer-funded service goes after, and you start to see exactly what NSW families are being signed up for.”
“Every dollar of legal aid in this state should go to people who need a lawyer, not to outfits proudly waving a movement’s flag while bankrolling one side of the culture war,” said Mr Shelton. “The Government must scrap this funding today, it also owes NSW taxpayers is a full, independent audit of every legal centre it funds, to find out how many of them are running activist litigation on the public purse instead of genuine legal aid.”
Family First is calling on the NSW Government to:
- Immediately scrap the $3.2 million in funding announced for the ICLC’s new statewide LGBTQIA+ legal service;
- Commission an independent audit of all government-funded community legal centres in NSW to identify activist-driven litigation funded by taxpayers, including any role in vilification actions such as the case against Kirralie Smith; and
- Redirect any funding earmarked for the service to generalist legal aid providers serving all NSW residents equally, regardless of identity or cause.
