'There's gotta be a reckoning': Labor MP speaks at event alongside Moira Deeming and Katherine Deves

Greg Donnelly said he was 'disappointed' more of his colleagues didn't attend the 'war on women' event.

Labor MP Greg Donnelly has spoken at an event called 'Why Can’t Women Talk About Sex' at the New South Wales Parliament, declaring that "there will be a reckoning taking place."

The event, which was hosted by Liberal Democrats MP John Ruddick and aimed to address the "war on women," featured virtual and in-person speeches, including from Victorian Independent Liberal MP Moira Deeming, Hobart councillor Louise Elliot and former Liberal candidate Katherine Deves.

Also at the event were Liberal MP Tanya Davies and One Nation's Tania Mihailuk.

"I am more than happy to be publicly associated with this and to be recognised as a co-conveyor," Donnelly said.

"I am, dare I say it, a little bit disappointed that more of my Labor colleagues wouldn't join me."

Donnelly, a Labor Right member, praised the women that spoke as "standing up to something which in fact...is in its essence, quite authoritarian and totalitarian."

"We've seen how that's played out...and we only have to look at the last century to see the dreadful human misery and worse associated with that way people interact in societies if it ever comes to pass."

He invited his "male colleagues, in this parliament and all around Australia" to push back and say "this is not acceptable," and "you will not treat people...women in particular, this way"

"There will be a reckoning taking place...I don't mean reckoning in any sort of unsatisfactory way...I'm suggesting any behaviour which is unreasonable...there's gotta be a reckoning of what's been going on."

"You can't stand by and allow this to continue."

Donnelly said none of the comments made by speakers could be construed in any way to be hateful or transphobic.

Last year, he clashed with then-NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard as he raised concerns over puberty-blocking treatment at a Newcastle gender clinic.

The event was hosted by Binary Australia, an anti-trans group whose spokesperson is Kirralie Smith, formerly a member of the Australian Liberty Alliance and Australian Conservatives. Binary was formed as a rebranding of Marriage Alliance, which campaigned for a 'No' vote at the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey. The group's website says it was founded to "push back against harmful gender theory."

A number of pro-trans protesters had to be removed from the event at one point, with the audience booing them and telling them to "get out."

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