The Safe Schools program will be reviewed after the Liberal backbencher Cory Bernardi raised concerns in the Coalition party room that it “indoctrinates kids with Marxist cultural relativism”.
The program was funded by the former Labor government as an anti-bullying initiative for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) students.
Bernardi said elements of the program were inappropriate for young children.
“Federal funds and resources from schools are pushing a social engineering agenda that is radically at odds with the aspirations of many parents,” he said. “We have got children as young as 11 being told to imagine they’re 16 and in a sexualised environment, others in a same-sex or opposite-sex attraction, to imagine themselves without genitals and being bullied.
“This is about the appropriateness of materials presented to our kids,” Bernardi said. “I want the government to pull the rest of the funding for the remainder of the program.”
Funding for the program is due to run out in the middle of next year.
Bernardi is a staunch opponent of marriage equality and resigned as shadow parliamentary secretary in 2012 after making comments linking same-sex marriage and bestiality.
But he told Guardian Australia that connecting his opposition to same-sex marriage and his response to the Safe Schools program was “conflating two separate issues”.
Six other Coalition MPs backed Bernardi when he raised concerns over the program in Tuesday’s joint party room meeting.
The federal education minister, Simon Birmingham, conceded there were elements of the program the Coalition would have implemented differently, but urged his colleagues not to lose sight of its anti-bullying objective.
He will conduct a review of the program, to report in March, at the request of the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
“Homophobia should be no more tolerated than racism, especially in the school environment,” Birmingham said in a statement. “However, it is essential that all material is age appropriate and that parents have confidence in any resources used in a school to support the right of all students, staff and families to feel safe at school.”
Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp)Mr Turnbull needs to show leadership and pull Cory Bernardi & the right wing of his party into line. https://t.co/3n0WBoLvY8 #safeschools
February 23, 2016
About 495 schools take part in the program. Parents and caregivers are consulted before it starts.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Turnbull needed to “pull Cory Bernardi and the right wing of his party into line”.
Labor’s trade spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said the program had bipartisan support in the past.
“It’s designed to address the terrifying statistics. I’d invite you to look at what Beyond Blue has said about young LGTBI people. The number that have experienced abuse and the terrifyingly high numbers who have attempted suicide or self-harm,” she told ABC TV. “We all want our children to be safe. I hope the more sensible people in the Liberal party will continue to focus on that very important objective.”
In parliament on Tuesday Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie called on the government to “condemn and defund” the program which he said was “usurping the role of parents” by taking over the role of educator on sexual matters.
“It is ideological big government reaching into the lives of ordinary Australians. The program advances an exclusive ideology that doesn’t allow for competing views on sexuality and gender,” he said. “The program decries bullying, yet pushes its own form of bullying by pressuring young children to conform to a particularly view of sexuality.”
Rebekah Robertson, the parent of a young transgender teen, Georgie Stone, told Guardian Australia on Monday she was not surprised conservatives had spoken out on the program.
“They’re wrong. They’re creating controversy where there isn’t any. The Safe Schools Coalition is enormously beneficial to families and to the young people involved,” Robertson said. “Nobody but the people who directly are LGBTI are going to be convinced of anything other than to be a good friend is a good thing.
“It’s really vital to the health and wellbeing of the entire school for everyone to learn about diversity and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
Georgie labelled the outrage over the program “unhelpful”, “mean” and “unnecessary”.
The Greens have called for an inquiry into homophobia and transphobia in Australian schools.
“Opposition to the Safe Schools Coalition seems to be based on the absurd idea that simply by talking about differences in sexuality or gender identity you’re going to recruit people. Anyone with the most basic understanding of human sexuality knows how ridiculous that is,” senator Robert Simms said.
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