Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations on your elevation, Mr Speaker. Trans and gender-diverse people deserve to feel affirmed for their gender expression. For some, it can be life-saving. In our current system, trans people have to spend up to $30,000 to access surgery and transitional health care because it isn't covered under Medicare. This is unacceptable. No matter how much or how little money you have, you should be able to access health care that affirms your identity and your expression of who you are and helps you to be seen in the way you want to be seen. Affirmative health care has incredibly positive consequences for trans and gender-diverse people, improving their mental health and reducing rates of suicide, especially among young people. Last year alone, nearly 50 per cent of trans and gender-diverse young people reported attempting suicide. We are failing them.

A young community member started a petition to cover affirmative health care for trans and gender diverse people under Medicare, and it has gathered over 140,000 signatures. It's a privilege to be able to bring those voices to parliament today. I table this petition and present it to the House of Representatives. The petition has been considered by the Standing Committee on Petitions and found to be in order.

The petition read as follows—

The petition was unavailable at the time of publishing.

It's clear that there is a need for this. It's our duty to make sure that socioeconomic barriers don't stop trans and gender diverse people from accessing lifesaving support services. Currently, numerous barriers exist in the healthcare system for disadvantaged trans and gender diverse people, and removing the socioeconomic barrier to affirmative health care is an important step in upholding our responsibility to care for trans and gender diverse people in this country. The Australian Greens want gender affirming medical care, including access to surgical procedures, prescribed hormones, products and services to achieve authentic gender identity and expression, to be provided at no out-of-pocket cost as part of Medicare. Congratulations to the petitioners and to everyone who is pushing for change.

I also want to speak tonight about the situation in Ethiopia and the tragic violence and suffering that we've witnessed there. I want to recognise the impact on diaspora communities in Australia and particularly on those in my electorate of Melbourne. The events in Ethiopia have been devastating. A recent open letter signed by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and 30 other organisations is summarised as follows:

Since fighting erupted in November 2020, civilians have been trapped between the parties to the conflict, largely cut off from assistance and communications, and displaced to other parts of Tigray, other regions of Ethiopia, and into neighboring countries.

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The blockade put in place by the government of Ethiopia on June 28 has caused the number suffering from extreme hunger to increase dramatically.

Amnesty International has documented that:

Soldiers and militias subjected Tigrayan women and girls to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation, and other forms of torture, often using ethnic slurs and death threats.

There are 2.3 million children still inside Tigray who need urgent assistance. Over 100,000 children of Tigray could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. The violence has been widespread and devastating.

As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also recognised in a recent update:

During the period under review, the Tigrayan forces have allegedly been responsible for attacks on civilians, including indiscriminate killings resulting in nearly 76,500 people displaced in Afar and an estimated 200,000 in Amhara.

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On 5 August, Tigrayan forces allegedly attacked and killed displaced people, mainly women, children, and older people, sheltering in a camp in Galikoma Kebele, in the Afar Region.

We've also seen recent reports of a civilian massacre with 120 deaths near Dabat in the Amhara region by Tigrayan fighters.

Sadly, while the violence has continued, the international community has not intervened. We support calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, a removal of the blockade and the deployment of international monitors. Here in Australia we welcome the money committed to the World Food Program and to the International Committee of the Red Cross, but there's more we can do. That should start with dramatically increasing Australia's assistance to Ethiopia, working through UNICEF and other international bodies to ensure assistance reaches those who need it. To our community members here in Australia, I want to affirm our solidarity. We hear your pain and we will support your calls for urgent action.