A controversial update to the NSW Parliament’s internal breastfeeding policy to include gender-neutral language has sparked pushback over the removal of terms specific to women.
NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane led the criticism with a viral clip posted to her social media targeting the new rules.
In the video that has drawn thousands of responses, the Ms Sloane questioned why parliament was “messing around with language” to describe an experience that was unique to women.
“So I’m going to say something that should not be controversial, but apparently it is – only women breastfeed babies,” Ms Sloane said.
“Well apparently not, according to NSW parliament, who released an updated list of policies … and they said for the breastfeeding policy, this has been updated with gender neutral language.
“Gender neutral language for a breastfeeding policy, this just blows my mind.”
The updated policy states parliament recognises the importance of breastfeeding for both parent and child, aiming to provide a family friendly workplace, replacing traditional maternal references with gender-neutral phrasing like “parent,” “carer,” and “lactating parent”.
While supporting workplace flexibility for parents, Ms Sloane argued that erasing gendered terms did a disservice to women.
“I want a workplace where the blokes can feel free to look after their babies. I want them to be able to share the care,” she said.
“And the blokes can do that too – but the thing they can’t do is breastfeed. So why are we messing around with language? Why are we trying to rob females from something that is really special and unique for us?
“When government gets the language wrong, when they try to neutralise everything, I think they do everyone a disservice, and quite frankly, they make themselves a joke. This is why we all wonder whether the world is going completely nuts.”
Captioned “Women breastfeed. Agree?”, the video has gathered more than 21,000 likes and 2400 responses.
Supporters flooded the comments section to thank Ms Sloane for speaking out, with one viewer praising her for addressing the topic “elegantly and firmly”.
“Gender neutrality always seems to be at the expense of women,” another user wrote.
“Women’s spaces, women’s safety and rights, women’s recognition and women’s bodies.”