Something as simple as getting public toilets right can make or break whether a significant number of people are able to fully participate in community life. Few know this better than people with chronic medical conditions, parents of young children, people with a disability and carers, people on their period or who are pregnant, and people who are transgender or gender diverse. The new inquiry I’m chairing will investigate what works with public toilets, and what should get the flush.

For that to happen, the inquiry needs to hear perspectives and experiences from people around NSW. You can share yours here.

This is what I said in the NSW Parliament about the need to fix public toilets in NSW recently:

Something as simple as getting public toilets right can make or break whether a significant number of people are able to fully participate in community life. Few know this better than people with chronic medical conditions, parents of young children, people with a disability and carers, people on their period or who are pregnant, and people who are transgender or gender diverse. Modern design principles include single‑stall gender‑neutral toilets, each with their own sink and full‑height door, that open directly onto visible areas like a park or a main corridor. This is far more accessible and safer than the old-fashioned design we are so often subjected to, with rows of cubicles with only partial doors and a potentially dangerous shared space hidden behind narrow winding corridors. Universal design allows parents and their children, as well as people with disabilities who require the assistance of a carer, to enter together. This best-practice design is better for everyone. So why are so many public toilets so crap?

This bias is the legacy of historical sexist norms where public spaces were built for, and by, men. This bias is on display here at Parliament House with more and better bathroom and shower facilities for men. With a record 57 women elected last year, even with costly extensions and upgrades, the Parliament repeatedly underestimates the diversity of people who will be elected to represent the State and of members' and parliamentary staff, and it fails to equitably accommodate us. In 2015 a group of women MPs staged a "loo coup" to highlight this issue, with one since‑departed MP describing toilets as "always the last bastion of structural inequality". But Parliament House is just one of many male‑dominated workplaces where the daily needs of the women who work there are an afterthought.

In the book,Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, which I love, author Caroline Criado Perez says that such biases in infrastructure design reflect broader societal biases as well as the invisibility of women's needs in data collection and decision‑making. Basing the number and design of toilets in public spaces on outdated models that do not reflect the actual use patterns and needs of the public, and relying on Frankenstein retrofits when this is proven to be the case, is expensive and wasteful. Longer wait times for women resulting from more frequent use, especially during menstruation or pregnancy, are often overlooked in design and planning processes. Toilet paper and soap are widely accepted as critical supplies that must be provided at any public toilet, but period products are not—yet. Amazing advocates, like Share the Dignity, are leading the way in driving this change.

Shortly after I was elected to my local council in Albury, an audit of our public toilets found that not one complied with current disability access standards and half lacked any accessible facilities. In response, our council announced a program of sweeping toilet upgrades guided by a new public toilet strategy. Now, public toilets must be no more than one kilometre apart in urban areas, and they must be clean, well maintained, and brought up to current accessibility standards under the Disability Discrimination Act. Under the strategy, facilities needing extended opening hours were identified and the changes were made. Critically, all new and refurbished public toilets must be built to best-practice universal design principles.

I am so proud of this legacy from my time as Deputy Mayor of Albury. On World Toilet Day, the Hon. Stephen Lawrence, a former Dubbo regional councillor, reflected that these projects are "a monument to real and practical inclusion, equality and accessibility and meeting the public health and sanitation needs of the community." I share those sentiments. The decisions we make about our amenities and built environments significantly shape our social environments. As the level of government closest to their communities, councils should be supported with the guidelines and the resources for best-practice provision of public toilets.

Share your experiences and perspective with the Inquiry here.