Robert Bromwich

Robert James Bromwich is a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia, serving since 29 February 2016. He has also served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island since May 2024 and as an Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory since 5 September 2016, and was a part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission from 10 April 2019 to 30 April 2020, sitting on its Inquiry on Corporate Crime.

Quotes

• I have found that Ms Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails but that her claim on indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds. I will make a declaration of contravention by way of unlawful indirect gender identity discrimination respondents subject to input from the parties as to the form of that declaration.
• In relation to the direct discrimination claim, the evidence did not establish that Ms Tickle was excluded from the Giggle app by reason of her gender identity, although it remains possible that this was the real but unproven reason. [...]
  The evidence goes no further than establishing that Ms Tickle's exclusion was likely to have been a by-product of excluding those perceived of being men by the use of visual criteria that failed to discriminate between cisgender men and transgender women.
  • From Tickle vs Giggle (23 August 2024), as cited in Joanna Panagopoulos "Transgender woman Roxanne Tickle wins novel gender discrimination case", The Australian (23 August 2024)
  • In Tickle vs Giggle, Roxanne (or Roxy) Tickle, a transgender woman, brought a claim for damages against Sall Grover, the founder of Giggle for Girls, a social media app intended to be used only by biological women (Justice Bromwich uses the term cisgender in his judgement). Ms Tickle was awarded damages and legal costs against Grover. In the judgement, Justice Bromwich said Tickle's "indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds" because the it was unproven Grover was aware of the person's gender identity. She is not a man because "sex is changeable".