Originally a comment by Arcadia on Beneath his notice.

Malinauskas is in fact, my state Premier, so this feels personal, even though I’ve never been to jail.

I take issue with this: “ adding he would not characterise as “the number one priority” the issue of transgender women in female prisons”.

The persistent magical take on priorities. It is apparently simultaneously so low a priority that it need not be given any thought, while also such a high and urgent priority that they must turn prison policy upside down over it.

Let’s be honest, shall we? It is not a high priority to record on official documents what convicted prisoners think of their gender. It is not a high priority to transfer male prisoners to female prisons based on the requests of those same male prisoners. It is not a high priority to ensure that male prisoners have easy, unimpeded access to female prisoners.

However, from his actions, we can conclude that things not on his priority list are: the safety of female prisoners, the safety of female prison staff, or the risk of being sued by either of the former for exposing them completely unnecessarily to unacceptable and avoidable risks.