What is a woman under Australian law?

In 2020, Sall Grover launched Giggle, a women-only app designed to give women a space to find flatmates, build networks, and connect without men. Access was verified using selfie-based AI at sign-up.

When Roxanne Tickle was denied access, a complaint was filed under the Sex Discrimination Act. What began as a startup dispute became the case of Giggle v Tickle, now before the Federal Court, testing whether Australian law still recognises biological sex.

In Part 1, Sall Grover explains how she went from screenwriting in Hollywood to building a tech startup, what happened when thousands of men flooded the app on launch, what the Australian Human Rights Commission demanded she agree to, and why she refused.

This is one of the most significant legal tests of sex, gender identity, and women’s rights currently before an Australian court.

A judgment from the Full Federal Court is now pending.

00:00 — Introduction

04:39 — What is a woman?

05:49 — From Hollywood to building Giggle

09:26 — Launch day: the app is overwhelmed by men

11:02 — Discovering gender ideology for the first time

12:17 — How the AI verification actually worked

14:10 — Why this is harder to defend than flat earth theory

15:51 — The complaint: Tickle v Giggle explained

17:35 — What the Human Rights Commission asked Sall to accept

22:30 — The 2013 amendments that removed 'woman' from the Act

26:06 — What 'gender identity' actually means in Australian law

31:00 — The first hearing and the judge's reasoning

37:00 — The appeal to the full federal court

41:59 — The Sex Discrimination Commissioner's role

47:10 — An accidental culture warrior

Follow Sall Grover: https://x.com/salltweets

Sall's Crowd Fund: https://gigglecrowdfund.com

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Monica speaks with London-based commentator and GB News host Will Kingston about the rapidly shifting political and geopolitical landscape in Britain and the wider West.

They begin with the aftermath of the recent US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the implications for the United Kingdom, including the reported Iranian drone attack on a British base in Cyprus and questions about whether Britain was prepared for retaliation. The conversation then turns to the state of the Royal Navy and broader defence capabilities, examining how decades of underinvestment have reduced Britain’s military capacity and what that means for its ability to project power internationally.

Monica and Will also discuss the controversy surrounding the Chagos Islands and the strategic Diego Garcia military base, unpacking the legal and geopolitical debate over Britain potentially transferring sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while leasing back the base used jointly by the UK and the United States.

The discussion then moves to migration policy and the ongoing small-boats crisis in the English Channel, comparing Britain’s approach with Australia’s border policies and exploring how international legal commitments influence national decision-making.

You can follow Will Kingston on social media at @willkingston on X (Twitter), Instagram and Facebook. You can also watch his show The Saturday Five on GB News. His podcast Fire at Will, previously with The Spectator Australia, will soon be produced by GB News.

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In this episode, Monica speaks with veteran Australian journalist Chris Uhlmann about Australia’s energy policy, the net zero transition, and the implications for economic prosperity and national security.

They begin by examining the relationship between energy consumption and living standards, discussing how fossil fuels powered the industrial growth that lifted global prosperity over the past century. Chris explains why energy density, reliability, and cost are central to economic development and why energy policy decisions can have far-reaching consequences for national wealth.

The conversation then turns to Australia’s natural resource endowment — including coal, natural gas and uranium — and how these resources have historically underpinned Australia’s position as a high-wage economy. Monica and Chris explore whether current policy settings risk undermining that advantage, particularly as Australia attempts to transition its electricity system toward wind, solar and battery storage.

They also discuss the technical realities of running an electricity grid, including why supply and demand must be balanced in real time, the role of baseload generation, and why intermittent energy sources require significant backup and transmission infrastructure. The discussion covers the rising cost of electricity, the subsidies embedded in the energy transition, and how these costs are distributed across households.

Finally, they examine the geopolitical dimension of energy policy, including Australia’s fuel security vulnerabilities, reliance on imported refined fuel, and the strategic risks of depending on overseas supply chains for renewable energy technology.

Chris Uhlmann is one of Australia’s most experienced political and national affairs journalists. He has served as Political Editor at the ABC and Channel Nine, and was previously Press Secretary to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. He is now a columnist with The Australian and a regular contributor to Sky News Australia, where he continues to write and comment on energy policy, national security and Australian politics.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.