GENDER IDENTITY

In reply to the Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15 September 2011) (First Session).

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women): The Attorney-General has been advised:

1. For official data-collection purposes such as the registration of births, South Australian law knows of only two sexes; male and female. There may well be people who subjectively feel that they do not belong to either category, but just the same, they will have been registered at birth as either one or the other. Accordingly, and quite reasonably, where it is relevant for the government to collect data about a person's sex, those are the two options normally offered on forms.

2. The Attorney-General would advise persons filling in official forms that require an indication of their sex to indicate the sex shown on their birth certificate unless they have legally changed sex, in which case they should indicate the sex shown on the legal document evidencing that change.

3. The Attorney-General has considered the report of the Australian Human Rights Commission entitled The Sex Files, published in 2009. The report raises some interesting social issues but the Attorney-General's stance is based on current South Australian law.