Explore every episode of the podcast Feminist Acts

Australia's Constitution has no right to equality. It has no bill of rights. And our last attempt at constitutional change (the 2023 Voice referendum) failed.

So we set our sights on 2048. We've re-written the Constitution for a Women's Constitutional Convention 20+ years from now.

Our proposal includes a new preamble and a constitutional right to equality. 

It also includes quotas across Parliament, the Ministry, the courts and the public service, so that no single gender can ever hold more than 60% of the power.

The result is a Constitution built for everyone who lives under it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Australia's Constitution doesn't have a bill of rights (and what that means for you today)
• What the "Q word" is, why it's so controversial, and why we need it
• What the failed 2023 Voice referendum taught us about Australia's appetite for constitutional change

Guests:

• Associate Professor Kcasey McLoughlin, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle
• Associate Professor Yee-Fui Ng, Faculty of Law, Monash University
• Emerita Professor Margaret Thornton, Australian National University

Hosts:

• Becky Batagol, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University
• Kate Seear, Professor, Deakin Law School, Deakin University

Take action today:

The book is free! The provisions are drafted. Take them to your parliament. Adapt them for another jurisdiction. Or start your own feminist legislation project.

• You can find Kcasey and Yee-Fui’s full proposal to change the Australian Constitution here, in Chapter 3 of our book, ‘Re-writing and Re-imagining Rights: Enshrining Gender Equality in Australia's Constitution’ by Kcasey McLoughlin and Yee-Fui Ng
  
  
• You can find Margaret’s commentary on Kcasey and Yee-Fui's proposal in Chapter 3A of our book, ‘Commentary on Re-writing and Re-imagining Rights’ by Margaret Thornton.

Download the full book for free (open access):
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003372462/feminist-legislation-project-becky-batagol-heli-askola-jamie-walvisch-kate-seear

The Feminist Legislation Project: Rewriting Laws for Gender-Based Justice 

Edited By Becky Batagol, Kate Seear, Heli Askola, Jamie Walvisch
Published by Routledge
Copyright 2025

Mentioned in this episode

• The Australian Constitution
• Professor Rainbow Murray on Reframing Gender Quotas as a Means of Improving Representation for All (2014)
• The Women’s Constitutional Convention 1998 on Australia becoming a republic
• On John Howard’s constitutional ‘mateship’ preamble proposal: Mark McKenna, First Words: A Brief History of Public Debate on a New Preamble to the Australian Constitution 1991-99 (2000)
• The 1999 republic referendum explained by the Museum of Australian Democracy
• 2023 Voice Referendum resources: a quick guide from the Parliamentary Library in the federal Parliament
• Uluṟu Statement from the Heart website
• Catharine MacKinnon, Sexual Harassment of Working Women (Yale University Press, 1979)

This podcast was funded by Monash University through the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Produced by Miniature.

Despite decades of law reform, there are still countless laws that discriminate against women, non-binary, trans, and gender diverse people. So we decided to rewrite the law.

We got together with 45 of Australia's leading legal minds: academics, lawyers, judges and activists. 

We set them to work for 7 years.

The result? 16 redrafted Australian laws, fully rewritten with the help of a parliamentary draftsperson, and ready to be introduced to any parliament that wants them. 

We've created something that can make people's lives better, in Australia and around the world.

And the best part? All these laws are rolled up into one easy-to-use guide - and it's completely free to download. (See below)

In this opening episode, you'll meet the team behind this project: Becky, Kate, Jamie and Heli.

You'll learn:

• The 16 areas of Australian law we have rewritten, across criminal, civil and constitutional law.
• How to use the book if you're an MP, policymaker, law reformer, academic or activist anywhere in the world.
• How a feminist legislation project differs from a feminist judgments project, and why that distinction matters.

Our hope is that lawmakers, academics and activists in Australia and around the world stop critiquing the law and start writing it better.

Take action today:

The book is free! The provisions are drafted. Take them to your parliament. Adapt them for another jurisdiction. Or start your own feminist legislation project.

Download the full book for free (open access):
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003372462/feminist-legislation-project-becky-batagol-heli-askola-jamie-walvisch-kate-seear

Guests:

• Associate Professor Becky Batagol, Faculty of Law, Monash University
• Professor Kate Seear, Deakin Law School, Deakin University
• Associate Professor Heli Askola, Faculty of Law, Monash University
• Dr Jamie Walvisch, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Western Australia

The Feminist Legislation Project: Rewriting Laws for Gender-Based Justice 

Edited By Becky Batagol, Kate Seear, Heli Askola, Jamie Walvisch
Published by Routledge
Copyright 2025

Resources:

Critical Judgment Projects: The online repository of the growing Feminist Judgments Projects and Critical Judgments Projects from across the world https://criticaljudgments.com/

Australian Feminist Judgments Project: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/australian-feminist-judgments-9781782255413/

Australian Indigenous Judgments Project
'Indigenous Legal Judgments: Bringing Indigenous Voices into Judicial Decision Making' Edited By Nicole Watson, Heather Douglas (2021) https://www.routledge.com/Indigenous-Legal-Judgments-Bringing-Indigenous-Voices-into-Judicial-Decision-Making/Watson-Douglas/p/book/9780367467456

'Aboriginal Storytelling and Judicial Decision Making' by Nicole Watson (2021) https://www.indigconlaw.org/home/aboriginal-storytelling-and-judicial-decision-making

This podcast was funded by Monash University through the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Produced by Miniature

When someone applies for compensation after being a victim of crime, you'd think the system would be on their side. 

In Western Australia, the law has a different idea. It allows the assessor to reduce a victim's compensation based on their "behaviour, condition, attitude or disposition." 

In other words: did you bring it on yourself?

It's victim-blaming, written into law. It disproportionately harms women, LGBTQIA+ people, trans people and First Nations communities.

So we rewrote section 41. It's ready to be introduced into WA Parliament, and any other parliament that wants it. The result? A compensation system that asks one question: What harm have you suffered?

In this episode, you'll hear from Kate and Jamie, the authors of the law reform. They're joined by commentator Professor Jenny Morgan from Melbourne Law School, who thinks they should have gone even further. 

You'll learn:

• What a crimes compensation scheme is (and why for many victims it's the only acknowledgment they ever get).
• How section 41 quietly re-runs the old "she provoked me" defence inside a system that's meant to help victims heal.
• Why this law disproportionately harms women, LGBTQIA+ people, trans people and First Nations communities.
• What Jenny Morgan learned abolishing the provocation defence in Victoria, and why feminist law reformers can't afford to walk away once a law changes.

Guests:

• Dr Jamie Walvisch, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Western Australia
• Professor Jenny Morgan, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

Hosts:

• Associate Professor Becky Batagol, Faculty of Law, Monash University
• Professor Kate Seear, Deakin Law School, Deakin University

Take action today:

The book is free! The provisions are drafted. Take them to your parliament. Adapt them for another jurisdiction. Or start your own feminist legislation project.

• You can find Kate, Jamie and Liza’s full proposal to amend crimes compensation law here, in Chapter 9 of our book, ‘Reconsidering the Role of the Victim in Criminal Injuries Compensation’

• You can find Jenny’s commentary on Kate, Jamie and Liza’s proposal in Chapter Chapter 9A of our book, ‘Commentary on Reconsidering the Role of the Victim in Criminal Injuries Compensation’

Download the full book for free (open access):
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003372462/feminist-legislation-project-becky-batagol-heli-askola-jamie-walvisch-kate-seear

Resources Mentioned in this Episode 

• Victorian Law Reform Commission, Defences to Homicide Report, Tabled in Parliament on 18 November 2004
• For a good explainer of how victims of crime schemes work in the context of sexual violence, see Chapter 16 of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence (2025, ALRC Report 143)
• The Australian Feminist Judgments Project is The Australian Feminist Judgments Project : Righting and Re-writing Law edited by Francesca Bartlett, Heather Douglas, Rosemary Hunter and Trish Luker (2014, Hart Publishing).
• The case involving the death of Julie Ramage was written about by former journalist Karen Kissane in her book, Silent Death: The Killing of Julie Ramage (2006).

This podcast was funded by Monash University through the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Produced by Miniature.

The law has failed women for too long. We're done waiting for someone else to fix it.

Welcome to Feminist Acts. Every episode takes a different area of Australian law and rewrites it to improve the lives of women, trans and non-binary people.

In this series you'll hear deep-dives from legal experts who have completed law reform proposals, ready to be introduced into any parliament that wants them.

These laws have been rewritten and they're all in our book, which is completely free to download.

We're looking forward to having you on this law reform journey.

Hosts:

• Becky Batagol, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University
• Kate Seear, Professor, Deakin Law School, Deakin University

Take action today:

Download the full book for free (open access): https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003372462/feminist-legislation-project-becky-batagol-heli-askola-jamie-walvisch-kate-seear

The Feminist Legislation Project: Rewriting Laws for Gender-Based Justice
Edited By Becky Batagol, Kate Seear, Heli Askola, Jamie Walvisch
Published by Routledge
Copyright 2025

Produced by Miniature Podcasts