Under a proposal introduced to parliament earlier this month, senator Claire Chandler wants the Sex Discrimination Act to be amended so it would not be unlawful for a sporting club to ban a person from a team based on their biological sex.

In a sensational grilling on ABC Radio Hobart, Senator Chandler was repeatedly asked to clarify who in particular is calling for the change.

“I’m not going to get into specifics,” she said.

When asked a further three times by host Leon Compton, the senator stood firm.

“What I will say is that I’ve been contacted by parents of girls who have realised how despondent their girls have become competing in sport, in situations where they’re competing against males and feeling like they’re not good enough to be in the game.”

“Is it possible, Claire Chandler, that this isn’t an issue at all; the fact that you can’t name a single group,” Mr Compton quipped back.

“Leon, like I said, I’m not going to get into specifics with you,” she responded.

She added she had been contacted by “sporting administrators” who have been concerned about the legal action that could be taken against them if they do exclude a transgender person from a single-sex sport.

“You look at what is happening with Leah Thomas in the United States, where this trans woman, I should say, swimmer, who’s beating her female counterparts by seven seconds in the pool. That is just madness,” Senator Chandler said.

Senator Chandler’s bill came back into the spotlight after Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed he had encouraged her to pursue it.

“I support it, as Claire knows. I think it’s a terrific Bill and I’ve given her great encouragement,” Mr Morrison told reporters on the hustings in Tasmania.

“Claire is a champion for women’s sport and I think she’s been right to raise these issues in the way that she has. Well done, Claire.”

But it remains to be seen if Mr Morrison’s backing will translate into broader support.

To have the bill introduced to the upper house, Senator Chandler had to do so as a private members bill, meaning she did not have support of the wider cabinet to put it on the agenda.

“If it was such a great bill, why isn‘t it endorsed by the cabinet?” Mr Compton pressed repeatedly.

“I’ve had a number of conversations with the Prime Minister obviously and with my colleagues about this issue. And look, if it’s something that the cabinet wants to consider, then that is obviously a matter for them,” Senator Chandler retorted.

With only three days left in the parliamentary sitting calendar, it is unlikely the Bill will pass, or even make it to the lower house, before the election.

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The confusion was blamed last night on a communication breakdown between the Whip’s office and the Prime Minister’s office.

The PMO insists it instructed the whips this morning to seek pairs from Labor for those Government MPs wanting to attend Wednesday’s National Press Club address.

That didn’t happen with Ms Archer told at 3pm it was “up to the PM” before she was finally told she could go after 7pm when news.com.au contacted the PMO.

In a major speech to be delivered at the national press club on Wednesday, the former Australian of the Year will speak out on tackling child sex abuse in Australia.

Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer secured a last-minute ticket to the sold out event on Tuesday, but her request to attend the event was not immediately granted.

Liberal colleagues claim she was told by party whip Bert Van Manem that it was “up to the PM.”

Despite Labor’s offer to allow her to leave Parliament despite the tight numbers on the floor of the House of Representatives, confusion reigned about whether she could attend.

After news.com.au contacted the Prime Minister’s office at 7:05 pm on Tuesday night, Ms Archer’s office then got a call 5 minutes later confirming she was cleared to attend.

The outspoken MP earlier declared she planned to cross the floor and vote against the Morrison Government’s religious freedom laws because they were in breach of Tasmanian anti-discrimination laws.

She told Parliament she was “horrified” that proposed amendments excluded children that identified as transgender.

“After so much progress how did we get back to a place where we ignore the harm we place on children when we tell them they are ‘other’, ‘less than’ and do not deserve rights and protections afforded to others – I fear it may risk lives,” Ms Archer said.

Labor’s manager of government business Tony Burke took to Twitter on Tuesday to insist there was no barrier from Labor MPs on Ms Archer or other MPs attending.

“If requests come in for the Press Club we will accommodate the same as we did for March4Justice,’’ he said.

“The government’s claim that we are meant to offer pairs that they haven’t requested is weird. And wrong.”

Last year, Ms Archer told news.com.au she burst into tears after she was taken to the Prime Minister’s office to discuss her decision to cross the floor on another matter despite repeatedly telling his staff she wanted to delay the discussion.

While Scott Morrison described the talks as “friendly”, Ms Archer said she was ambushed by the meeting and had earlier asked to delay it.

“I didn’t feel like I was being marched to the principal’s office. I just felt a little disappointed that it happened when I had expressed to the Prime Minister’s office that I would have preferred, that my preference was not at that time,” she told news.com.au.

“And I had said in the text messages to the Prime Minister’s office that I didn’t want to have the meeting, before the meeting.

“They sent me a message saying he wanted to see me at 12.15pm. I said I am not ready. I need a break.

“It was a big thing. It was just the emotion of the moment.”

Ms Archer is a child sexual assault survivor who voted with independent MP Helen Haines to suspend standing orders to establish an anti-corruption commission.

“I have found this year incredibly difficult, personally because of my own history as a child sexual abuse survivor,” she said.

“It has been difficult for me to sit with discipline in unity with all this going on around me and it has hurt me. It has hurt me.

“But I am not weak. I’m telling you that I don’t think that some of these things are the right way forward.

“That language being used yesterday about drones and warm bodies. That’s what I said to him. That I am not a drone.”

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The respirators offer the gold standard of protection for disposable masks and filter 95 per cent of particles.

And some have questioned why they have not been adopted as the mask of choice for the community during the current wave, given the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that respirators such as N95 masks offer the highest level of protection.

And the US government last week announced that it was providing 400 million free N95 masks to the public.

The N95 mask is a type of respirator which filters out large and small particles and is designed to reduce exposure to bushfire smoke and other circumstances in which air quality is poor.

So far, Australian officials have stopped short of recommending N95 masks despite them offering more protection against the spread of the disease.

Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Professor Alison McMillan last week said that there was no evidence to suggest we move towards N95 use in daily life.

Infectious diseases expert and former federal deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth said that while N95 masks had their place for healthcare workers, he wouldn’t go as far as recommending they are needed for people walking the streets.

“You want to use PPE to protect from the disease,” Dr Coatsworth told NCA Newswire.

“You upgrade commensurate to the risk.

“You think about the images of the people going to fight the Ebola virus where health workers are double-gloved, taping themselves up in head to toe suits and spraying themselves down with chlorine as they come out of the treatment centre. They do that because they know if they get ebola you’ve got a 30-50 per cent chance of dying.

“It’s not just a question of how much they protect an individual, it’s a question of what are you protecting from?”

And he said N95 masks weren’t necessary to protect the average person from Covid.

“If people who are vulnerable did not go around wearing an N95 during a very severe influenza season, like in 2017, then there is no reason why they should be going around wearing them right now,” he said.

“You could make the case for wearing one if someone was particularly vulnerable.

“And that doesn’t mean just a little bit of diabetes or a little bit of blood pressure.

“It really means severe immune suppression. Someone who had leukaemia and was in the middle of their chemotherapy, or someone who has had a lung transplant.”

N95 masks are not designed to be reused and can require specialist fitting.

Healthcare workers use a “fit tester” which involves trying on several masks and measuring air “leakage”.

“In a community setting you can probably get away with doing what’s called a fit check,” Dr Coatsworth said.

“That basically means standing in front of the mirror with this thing on. When you breathe in, if you see the thing sort of collapsing a little bit, then that’s good, because it maintains a good seal.

“And when you’re exhaling, if you’re feeling something go into your eye, or leaking at your chin, it’s not the right one to use. And it’s probably not doing that much more than a surgical mask.”

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