Pauline Hanson has called for an inquiry into the gender reassignment treatment of Australian children and rallied against gender identity ideology being taught in schools.
The One Nation leader demanded authority figures ‘leave the children alone’ in a fiery address to Parliament last week.
‘Keep your LGBTIQ to yourselves behind your own bloody closed doors. Leave the children alone!’, Senator Hanson said, describing it as ‘gender madness’.
She added: ‘This is to do in their own homes, not for you to be pushing your own agenda on innocent children’s minds on what they should be or whether you’re a girl or a boy: I’ve never heard of anything so disgusting in all my life what is happening in our school systems now to our young innocent children.’
But Anna Brown, CEO of Equality Australia, described Senator Hanson’s motion as ‘one-sided and misleading’, claiming the politicisation of trans and gender diverse chidlren’s healthcare ‘negatively impacts the health and wellbeing of a population that is already under significant stress’.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for an inquiry into the gender reassignment treatment of Australian children
Senator Hanson called for the Senate to investigate whether Australian kids were being rushed into gender reassignment treatment and whether doctors speaking out about it were being ‘silenced’.
Dr Jillian Spencer, a senior staff psychiatrist at Queensland Children’s Hospital, was suspended from clinical duties in April following a patient’s complaint, after she questioned the use of puberty blockers without an appropriate mental health assessment.
Senator Hanson also questioned whether ‘Australia should follow the United Kingdom and many European countries in adopting a more cautious approach to the prescription of puberty blocking drugs, amid concerns the evidence base for their efficacy is lacking’.
‘The rapid increase in Australian children being prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria deserves an comprehensive inquiry by this Parliament,’ said Senator Hanson.
She said a freedom of information request revealed a 10-fold increase in Australian children enrolled in public adolescent gender clinics from 2014 to 2021.
Senator Hanson (pictured) said the ‘gender-affirmation ideology has all the hallmarks of a crazy cult’
The same figures also revealed a more than 100-fold increase in children being prescribed puberty blockers.
The use of puberty blockers has been limited in Britain, Sweden, Finland and France.
‘This gender-affirmation ideology has all the hallmarks of a crazy cult – capturing impressionable minds, isolating them from their families, and ultimately destroying their lives,’ said Senator Hanson.
She added: ‘Mark my words: if the Labor, the Greens and others in the Senate, deny this inquiry, those responsible will not escape accountability.
‘History, and the Australian people, will condemn you.’
Senator Hanson accused them of ‘not caring about the children of this nation’.
But Ms Brown, CEO of Equality Australia , said gender affirming care has the potential to save lives.
‘Trans and gender diverse Australians are under repeated attack, and the politicisation of their healthcare negatively impacts the health and wellbeing of a population that is already under significant stress,’ she said.
‘Research shows that access to gender affirming care can be lifesaving for transgender and nonbinary youth.
‘These are deeply personal decisions that should be left to young people, their parents and the doctors treating them, and they should not be up for political debate.’
Earlier this month, Queensland passed a new law making it possible for children as young as 12 to be able to change their sex on their birth certificate without their parents’ consent.
The laws also make it easier for people to have their gender documented without undergoing sexual reassignment surgery after assessment from a practitioner.
The LNP opposed the laws, arguing a bill allowing self-declaration was a threat to women’s privacy in women-only spaces such as toilets and change rooms and would have a negative impact on women’s sports.
‘This bill is an attack on women, it is an attack on women’s rights and it’s an attack on young girls,’ deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie told parliament.
Opposition MPs also raised concerns about children under the age of 16 who might apply to change the gender on their birth certificate.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the bill had proper safeguards and ‘does not allow a young person to just go off and randomly make a decision and get these changes made without any proper oversight’.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, who introduced the bill last year as attorney-general, said the concerns about women’s safety were unfounded.
‘Despite repeated claims to the contrary, there is no evidence from any jurisdiction to suggest that women will have fewer rights or be less safe,’ she told parliament.
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