The Greens NSW oppose One Nation’s Education Amendment Bill in the strongest terms.
There is no place for transphobia in our school system and this attempt to make it official school policy, risking the health, wellbeing, safety and education of trans and gender diverse kids and teachers is nothing short of disgraceful.
There is no place in the NSW education system for hateful attacks on trans and gender diverse staff and students, or indeed on the wider LGBTIQ+ community. The NSW Government should be working hard to ensure that syllabus content is more inclusive and that counselling and other support is reflective of the needs of all students. It is extremely disappointing that instead, the Liberal/National Coalition Government is giving a platform to transphobic and extremely damaging fringe views.
The idea that we should be firing teachers or counsellors who support trans and gender diverse children who are asking for help is obscene. Our caring teachers deserve better than this ideological attack being led by One Nation - they deserve our unwavering support for educating the next generation of young people.
This bill should never have been given the platform of an inquiry. Bullies only gain power if those who could stop them choose not to. We are committed to working hard to ensure it never becomes law.
The Greens are committed to ensuring this inquiry exposes what everyone in the community already knows, that this law is unnecessary and more about the self-promotion of certain One Nation MPs than it is about caring for students, respecting parents or supporting teachers.
There are already exclusionary practices and teachings that are currently allowed in private and religious schools in NSW and as a member of the committee conducting the inquiry, David Shoebridge will use this opportunity to make the case for discrimination in all schools to be outlawed, because every child and every teacher should be protected.
The Greens will always stand with LGBTIQ+ students and teachers, and the right for all children to have access to a quality public school where they are safe and supported. We will always call out bullies and those in positions of power who seek to cause harm to others for their own political gain.
Jenny Leong - Greens spokesperson for Sex, Sexuality and Gender Identity
David Shoebridge - Member of the Inquiry Committee and Spokesperson for Education
