Researchers
Dr Chris Dietz, Medicine & Health/Law & Justice, UNSW
Dr David Carter, Law & Justice, UNSW
Dr Andy Kaladelfos, Law & Justice, UNSW
Professor Christy Newman, Arts, Design & Architecture, UNSW
Associate Professor Bridget Haire, Medicine & Health, UNSW
Funding
This project was part of the Australian Human Rights Institute’s 2025 joint seed funding round with UNSW's Faculty Law & Justice, receiving $15,000.
Summary
Trans children, like all Australians, have a right to health care. Access to this right has become politicised, as demonstrated by the Queensland government’s recent decision to prohibit hormone blockers from being prescribed to new trans and gender diverse patients under the age of 18 in the public health system.
Trans health care is complicated by the expectation that patients are treated by multi-disciplinary teams, including health practitioners of different types and specialisms. A young trans person seeking medical treatment is likely to interact with GPs, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, endocrinologists, therapists, speech pathologists, social workers, potentially surgeons, and many other allied health practitioners. The professions that regulate these interactions include politicians, lawyers, civil servants, and other policymakers – some of whom may not have undergone medical training. Not all health practitioners spring to mind when we think of the neatly typified ‘doctor-patient relationship’.
This project will examine how boundaries between different professions are managed when conflict arises in the governance of health care. The Australian Human Rights Institute will fund interviews with health practitioners from diverse disciplines and specialisms. These interviews will inform a qualitative investigation into how health practitioners experience and respond to interventions based on administrative rather than clinical judgement.
Research findings will offer insight into how health practitioners navigate the task of enabling access to the right to health care in a highly politicised field. The findings will be circulated to interviewees and made publicly available in a brief report.