The Australian Department of Health struggled to define “woman” at an April 4 Senate Estimates hearing when a senator posed the question.

Liberal Senator Alex Antic asked Health Secretary Brendan Murphy “a very simple question” to define the term “woman.”

“I’m going to finish up then … with a very simple question for the department, and that is one which has troubled me for a great deal of time with the bureaucracy here,” Antic said. “Can someone please provide me with a definition of what a woman is? Department of Health: definition of a man? Definition of a woman? Anyone?”