Deves on the front foot over her critics

KATHERINE Deves has hit back at her critics, saying that the “silent majority” of Australians support her campaign to protect women’s sport and that current Warringah MP Zali Steggall, herself a pioneering female athlete, is a hypocrite who is “trying to pull the ladder up behind her”.

Ms Deves (inset) addressed the controversy surrounding her election campaign in her first print interview since coming under fire for some historic social media posts about transgender athletes.

“My opponent had extraordinary success in the Olympics and she is to be commended for that,” she said.

“Her sports success led to her professional success, and yet she’s not prepared to stand up and defend the rights of women and girls coming after her.”

When asked previously by this newspaper if she would have been prepared to compete against biological males in the 1998 Olympics where she took bronze in the women’s slalom, Ms Steggall declined to answer and instead said the issue was “creating division”.

While Ms Deves has apologised and said she regretted that some of the language she used offended some people, she also said the overall issue of protecting women’s sport was resonating across the country.

“I think there’s a lot of quiet Australians out there who do hold commonsense positions on many things and I’ve received messages of support from all over the country, even internationally,” she said.

Asked why her campaign to keep transgender athletes from competing against women had attracted such criticism, Ms Deves said it was about a conflict of rights.