29-05-2025
Two Sky News hosts say banning of two transgender players from community netball league 'common sense' move
Two Sky News hosts have welcomed the banning of two transgender competitors from playing women's netball in Victoria, describing it as "common sense".
The Riddell District Netball League made the decision to ban two transgender players due their "superior stamina and physique", the Herald Sun revealed, amid Netball Victoria's investigation over whether they posed a safety risk to women players.
An independent expert was brought in by Netball Victoria to review possible on-court safety risks after a club in Melbourne's outer north flagged concerns about the size and strength of the two transgender players who represent Melton Central.
The investigation was sparked after Melton South players threatened to boycott matches against Melton Central due to their safety concerns about playing the team.
Danica Di Giorgio said "common sense has finally prevailed".
"Why you even need an investigation is beyond me," she told viewers on Thursday.
The Sky News host added it is "great" the transgender players had been banned, but she believes "it should have been obvious in the first place".
One of the two banned competitors, Manawa Aranui, had been rejected by a netball league in Ballarat when she tried to join a women's team in April.
Ms Aranui had previously played in elite men's netball, the Herald Sun reported.
She hit out on social media on Wednesday, saying she had been "dragged publicly... into a conversation where both my character and identity have been attacked".
Ms Aranui went on to say "these bigots don't deserve my time".
Di Giorgio argued people should not be labelled as "bigot" if they had the opinion that "a man should not be competing in a woman's league".
Sall Grover, the founder of female-only social media app Giggle, agreed, claiming the issue had "advanced" because people are "too scared to talk about" it.
"The only way it was able to sort of infiltrate society like it has was shutting down anybody who questioned it and so it's been years, for some women over a decade, of desperately trying to speak out and be heard and saying they're men," she said.
"Our bodies play sports and sport is divided by sex and sometimes age and sometimes weight, depending on what the sport is. All he has to do is play in his sex class like literally everybody else. But yeah, instead we all get called bigots for stating the truth.
"I think the time is up on that now. I think that the train's definitely left the station. Every day people are starting to go, 'hang on, what's going on cause they went too far?'"
Fellow Sky News host Peta Credlin also labelled it a "win for common sense".
She argued a video circulating of Ms Aranui knocking over a female competitor should not have to make the news before governing bodies take action.
Broadcaster and Save Womens' Sport advocate Lucy Zelic said it was the "unfortunate reality" as sporting bodies had shown "immense cowardice to this particular issue".
"The point that we need to talk about is the integrity of the sport, the safety of the sports," she told Credlin.
Ms Zelic suggested more politicians should speak up on the issue, pointing to Senator Claire Chandler who has spoken publicly about protecting women's sport.
The Riddell and Ballarat leagues had highlighted Section 42 of the Sex Discrimination Act as the reason why the players were barred, as it says sporting bodies can rule transgender competitors ineligible to participate due to strength and physique.
Ms Aranui had also claimed she was the one to be recruited.
'This won't be a long novel — because frankly, these bigots don't deserve my time or energy... Melton South Football Netball Club and your Netball Coordinator/players: you're entitled to your opinions, but let's clear some things up," she wrote on Facebook.
'Your head coach tried to recruit me to play for your club. Yes — YOUR HEAD COACH TRIED TO RECRUIT ME.'
