Safe Schools Anti-bullying Initiative

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:35): There are few things that stoke a parent's fear like the thought of their child being harassed or vilified. The idea that your child could be being excluded, ridiculed or harassed at school or online is simply heartbreaking for parents and any other caregivers. For parents of same-sex attracted and gender-diverse young people, this heartbreak is all too common. LGBTIQ young people experience unacceptably high levels of verbal, psychological and physical abuse, particularly whilst at school. Tragically, we know that this can lead to increased rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm and even suicide.

This is why the former Labor government contracted SHINE SA to deliver the Safe Schools Anti-bullying Initiative back in 2014. SHINE SA currently has a three-year, $600,000 contract to deliver this program until 2020. This voluntary, on-request resource has been successfully used by schools to provide a more inclusive environment for LGBTIQ students, staff and family. Given the high incidence of bullying directed at LGBTIQ young people, which can have tragic consequences, it is a no-brainer for the state government to provide specialised resources to tackle it.

I would like to share with the house some of the fears that parents of South Australian LGBTIQ children have regarding the potential axing of this important program. This is from the parent of a 13-year-old transgender student who lives in regional South Australia:

Taking away Safe Schools will ensure that my life as a parent will be strained. I will have to be in the school advocating for his basic rights, micromanaging the everyday interactions of the school community and educating staff on the needs of LGBTIQ community members.

I will no longer have the option to have my child be anonymous in the school as I will have to be there doing all of the above. Living in rural Australia, there are no resources or safe spaces that allow us just to be.

For our safety we have the right to confidentiality and anonymity. Taking Safe Schools away you also take away any right that I have to any of this.

And this from another parent:

It's crucial that LGBTIQ children feel safe and supported at school, and without Safe Schools I fear for the already devastating mental health statistics surrounding these children.

Despite this, the education minister has announced that there is no need for a specialised service and has committed to tearing up SHINE SA's current three-year contract. Why? I do not think that for a moment he fervently believes in abandoning the work undertaken through the program, but sadly he and others opposite may be beholden to the extreme elements within the Liberal Party that see this life-saving program as some sort of Marxist conspiracy.

The abandonment of this program is pandering to the extreme right wing elements of the Liberal Party, who are terrified of losing more supporters to Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson. There is no other plausible reason to cut a successful program aimed at improving the lives of LGBTIQ young people and keeping them safe. There is, of course, nothing Marxist about a father not wanting his daughter to be bullied because she does not conform to stereotypical ideas about girls. There is, of course, nothing Marxist about a mother of a same-sex attracted son wanting her child to be treated equally to other children, free from harassment and violence.

This group of fringe conservative politicians those opposite are intent on appeasing are the same ones who hyperventilate any time the rights of LGBTIQ Australians are discussed and defended. The week before last, they were fabricating claims that Victorian councils were banning Thomas the Tank Engine on gender grounds. Next week, they will launch another moral crusade, no doubt, against some other imaginary PC monster.

I have to say that it really is a sad indictment on Australian conservative politics that elements within it feel threatened by programs designed to prevent youth suicide and to promote tolerance. These sorts of homophobic moral crusades have no place whatsoever in our children's development and education. Homophobic and transphobic bullying affects all students because often it is those who are not LGBTIQ who are also on the receiving end of it. Parents of LGBTIQ young people have real and genuine fears about harassment and violence, and this government is not listening to them. I implore the South Australian Liberal government to stand up to the conservative ideologues and not cut this vital program.

Time expired.