Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We know exactly what Senator Hanson is up to here. What she is seeking to do through this motion is to provide a platform to allow parliamentary privilege to be used as cover for transphobic people who want to punch down on transgender people and, in particular, on transgender children. I remind the Senate that Senator Hanson twice tried in the previous parliament to have this bill read for a first time. The Senate, on both occasions, refused to allow this bill to be read for a first time. I want to say this to people who are listening. The Senate deciding not to even allow a bill to be read for a first time is a vanishingly rare occurrence. It is reserved for bills that are particularly obnoxious and that the Senate determines should not even be tabled in this place, let alone debated.

Let's be clear about this. This is a bill that would remove protections on the basis of gender identity from the Sex Discrimination Act. It is undoubtedly a transphobic piece of legislation. It seeks to use the lives and the wellbeing of transgender people in this country, including transgender children in this country, as political pawns in a divisive, far-right agenda. Senator Hanson wants to fight the culture wars, doing so in the full knowledge that this will harm some of the most vulnerable people in our country, including children. It is a disgrace that we are even having to debate this matter today.

I want Senator Hanson to know something here. This is according to the LGBTIQ+ Health Australia snapshot of mental health and suicide prevention statistics for LBGTIQ+ people. Trans people aged 14 to 25 are 15 times more likely to try to kill themselves, to attempt suicide, than the general population. They're 15 times more likely, and you want to weaponise them in your disgraceful culture wars. Well, the Australian Greens are not going to have a bar of it. Around one in two—half—of trans and gender-diverse people aged 14 to 25 report that they have attempted suicide in their lifetime. Trans people aged 18 and over are 6½ times more likely to self-harm compared to the general population.