Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor opposes this bill, the Australian Education Legislation Amendment (Prohibiting the Indoctrination of Children) Bill 2020. These amendments would undermine evidence based teaching in our schools and would allow the teaching of fringe conspiracy theories to Australian kids. The curriculum taught to Australian kids should be informed by evidence and expertise. While it's important for students to learn about opposing political views, this bill extends to opposing views on science and historic events as well and could theoretically include any event over which opposing views allegedly exist. Our kids need to be learning the facts about science and history, not about conspiracy theories. The bill is offensive to teachers, who, like other essential workers, have been working incredibly hard during this pandemic. This bill is damaging, poorly drafted and should not be passed.

It is not surprising, but it is disappointing, that One Nation are debating this bill today. When One Nation get an opportunity to present legislation to the national parliament, this is what they choose to prioritise. In the middle of a recession, in the middle of the worst jobs crisis since the Depression, all they care about are these tired culture wars. They're putting all of their energy into the content of education classes, but they go missing when Queenslanders are losing their jobs. Why aren't they talking about the hundreds of jobs lost in Rockhampton at the Central Queensland University? Why aren't they talking about the government's push to make mine workers permanent casuals? One Nation love to profess their support for workers, but, when they have a chance to actually help them, they present us with this.

This discussion on these issues is always devoid of fact and it's about spreading conspiracy theories, creating fear and division. We know what this bill is really about. We know from the contribution of the government senator before this what this bill is really about debating. We need to understand how we got to this point. What has led to the introduction of this bill and an environment where it would be considered possible to debate conspiracy theories in this parliament? We know part of Senator Hanson's motivation is to fuel outrage, which is self-serving and wholly aimed at whipping up Facebook clicks and media reporting. It is not about supporting Queenslanders.

But the other reason that we got here is this: it has become necessary for these crossbench senators to compete with the conservative views within the Liberal Party because the true Liberal Party is far from modern or liberal. These so-called modern Liberals are unable to stand up to the hard Right of their party room. The Liberal Party is being taken over by the hard Right, as we saw from media reports of branch stacking in the Victorian Liberal Party designed to punish and purge socially progressive MPs. Senator Hanson hasn't introduced this legislation in a vacuum. We know that there are climate change deniers in the Liberal party room. That is why they haven't taken any credible action on climate change ever. Liberal Senator Rennick has accused the Bureau of Meteorology of changing temperature records to fit a global warming agenda.

On this side of the chamber, we believe in science and we trust scientists. We don't try to peddle discredited conspiracy theories, but we know that that is happening in the Liberal party room. We also know that, while public support for marriage equality silenced many hard Right conservatives on gay relationships, the hard Right of the Liberal Party, jockeying to outdo each other when it comes to preselection, is still at its core deeply opposed to LGBTI equality. Since the COVID-19 crisis began, Liberal Senator Chandler has made at least two speeches in the Senate on these issues, trying to veil her transphobic views as faux feminist values. In her second reading speech on this bill, Senator Hanson said:

… when educators protect the rights of a minority by stripping girls of their rights then something is wrong.

Well, we know where Senator Chandler's getting her speeches from, because she said in a speech to the Senate:

I stand with JK Rowling and millions of women around the world who are determined to ensure our rights as women are not traded off in the name of diversity.

Liberal Senator Stoker has an active petition on her website. She says:

How can you stand up to the transgender agenda

She's asking people to sign this petition. She says on that website:

These issues are not hypothetical. They are coming up for debate in the parliament and in our public discourse all of the time.

Well, these debates are happening, but they are happening because the Liberal Party is having them, because they are giving speeches, creating petitions and endorsing views of this kind in the middle of an economic crisis, when youth unemployment is skyrocketing, especially in regional Australia, because fuelling self-serving outrage to protect their own jobs is more important to them than protecting the jobs of young Australians.

The biggest concern for young people and their parents right now is the huge surge in youth unemployment. They're concerned about how they're going to get a job, the quality of the TAFE course that they're considering or whether there will be enough university places for them. Parents and kids aren't sitting up at night worrying about the lack of conspiracy content in their local school; they're worrying about their jobs and whether their kids will have jobs in the future. Will they get the same opportunities that other generations have had?

It occurs to me that there may have been some contributions to this debate today that were incredibly hurtful to young people, especially LGBTI youth and their friends and their families, so I want to finish today on a positive note. Last Friday was Wear it Purple Day. Wear it Purple Day is about showing young LGBTIQ people that they have a right to be proud of who they are. It is about creating safe spaces in schools, universities, workplaces and public spaces to show young LGBTIQ people that they are seen and they are supported.

In Australia, 75 per cent of LGBTI youth will be bullied because of their identity, and 80 per cent of those people will experience that bullying at school. These kids are vulnerable. They are at risk of suicide. It was only three years ago that they watched a public debate take place about whether their relationships were worth the same as their peers', and we are here again debating their worthiness, their existence and their equality. I was one of those kids once, and now I am standing in the Senate to tell them this important message. They have every right to be proud of who they are, and they have every right to feel safe and to feel supported. If you're an LGBTI kid, it doesn't just get better; it gets really awesome. Labor opposes this bill.