Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too want to take note of the answer given by Senator Brandis to the question asked by Senator Dastyari about the Safe Schools program. That was an attempt by Senator Dastyari to find out the position of the Turnbull government on this really important program in our schools for our children—in particular, our children who are gender diverse. It is a program that is well accepted, has been running, has been successful and, until this week, had the support of the whole of this parliament. We know that Senators Birmingham and Ryan supported the program, but this week we have seen that the ultra right-wing cohort of the Turnbull government—especially Senator Bernardi and, today, Senator O'Sullivan—want to defund this program so that it ceases to exist. They have managed to convince the weak and pathetic Prime Minister Turnbull to exercise yet another backflip on policy. We are used to it in taxation and other issues like that, but in the matter of a social policy such as this one, which is so important to some of our children in our schools, you would think that Mr Turnbull would have shown some spine and stood up to those ultra right-wing homophobes in this place—as my leader, Bill Shorten, said this morning—who use every opportunity to denigrate and marginalise children, and Australians generally, who are gender diverse.

It is a very sad thing to come into this chamber and this parliament to hear this relentless attack against people. By doing this, all we do is contribute to the bullying of LGBTI persons in Australia and, in particular, children, who we know suffer terribly from bullying because they are not attracted to persons of the other sex. We have seen the Turnbull government kowtow to the hard right when it comes to marriage equality and insist on having a ridiculous plebiscite which is not even going to be binding. That is one thing, but this particular program—the Safe Schools program—is directed at young people. We know that, from a university survey of over 3,000 Australian LGBTIQ young people aged between 14 and 21, more than 60 per cent reported having experienced homophobic abuse. Over 18 per cent reported physical homophobic abuse, and a further 26 per cent reported being victims of other homophobic abuse, including rumours, graffiti and cyberbullying. We also know that 80 per cent of this abuse of our children occurs at school.

When the Labor government introduced the Safe Schools program, it was to target that unrelenting attack on our children. We know that these children are the ones who are most likely to suffer from anxiety and depression and who are three times more likely to attempt suicide. Surely, all of us in this place must do everything we can to prevent that happening to our children. It is a good initiative. It is implemented in schools by agreement of the schools. Parents are consulted about what is in this program. It is rolled out in schools with the sole purpose of making a school safe and free from bullying for all children. There are 495 government and private schools, including Christian schools, across the country educating 400,000 of our children. This particular program has a very strong track record.

I am very tired of what goes on in this chamber with regard to the abuse of people who are gender diverse or same-sex attracted. I am tired of the people who send me emails which are vile and homophobic as well. I can tell these people that I am harvesting all of your email addresses, and I will go back to you every time a gender diverse or same-sex attracted student in our schools harms themselves because of your attitude towards them. I am going to send you an email and tell you about it because I am fed up with having to put up with your abuse of our young people. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.