Safe Schools Program

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:34): I raise this matter of interest to present to the house 1,243 undersigned petitioners, who are calling on us to ensure that the Safe Schools coalition program is banned in South Australia. This was an initiative of a lady that I am very impressed with and have worked with, Leanne Liang. She is a representative of the Australian-Chinese community in South Australia.

This petition brings to the attention of the house the Australian-Chinese community in South Australia's concerns over the ongoing implementation of the Safe Schools coalition program in South Australia. It says that they believe that the Safe Schools coalition program contains resources that promote a particular ideology, including gender fluidity, that is contrary to our cultural and belief system, discriminates against children and parents from other cultures who have a view of sexual relationships involving male and female as normative due to their families' cultural and religious belief system, and does not allow sufficient parental consent.

It also says that this petition highlights the fact that the Safe Schools coalition program relies entirely on the judgement of school principals and teachers as to the appropriateness of the lessons to be used, disregarding the wishes of parents who may not wish for their children to be exposed to particular content. It is not inclusive of Australia's cultural and religious diversity. It isolates those who come from cultures that have different values to the values being taught. It diminishes the seriousness of other forms of bullying, such as race or physical appearance, by focusing on only one form of bullying and excluding other kinds.

The Australian-Chinese community in South Australia also say that they believe that it is the right of parents to teach their own children their cultural and religious belief system with regard to sex education without the support of the school. They also believe that the schools do not have the right to teach material that is promoting an ideology that is contrary to their cultural and religious beliefs without consent from parents. Finally, they believe that it is not up to the judgement of principals and teachers to choose to endorse this set of teaching without regard to the wishes of parents.

The 1,243 undersigned petitioners of this petition to the Legislative Council ask to stop the implementation of the Safe Schools coalition program in South Australian schools, requesting that any future anti-bullying programs to be run by the education department be inclusive of all forms of bullying and be respectful of cultural and religious diversity.

I congratulate Leanne Liang again and all those people who have signed the petition. It is unfortunate that the petition was not in a format in which I was able to formally present it to the Clerk and therefore have it go on the Hansard as a formal, recognised Legislative Council petition. Having said that, it does give me the opportunity of raising this on their behalf in this chamber. It also puts on the public record the fact that the South Australian-Chinese community has extreme concerns about the Safe Schools program in South Australia.

Australian Conservatives concur with the South Australian section of the Australian Chinese community in the entirety. We would ask, as a matter of urgency, that the government pull this program. We all know that it is ideology-driven from the left. It is unacceptable that this is forced upon students. This is the responsibility of parents. Schools are there to mainly focus on education based on the curriculum that is needed for students to be able to end up with successful jobs and economic opportunities in our state. It is actually the right of the parents to make a decision on what they wish to teach their children when it comes to safe schools programs, bullying and harassment, gender fluidity, and the list goes on.

It has gone too far. The left have got well out of control, and it is time the government actually got more balanced and started to focus on the silent majority of people who are disgusted with the Safe Schools program. We have seen it pulled in states like Tasmania and New South Wales, and I commend those governments and the leadership of their premiers and cabinet for pulling it. Here in South Australia, we seem to be obsessed with it. I have complaints most weeks from parents, and I do not apologise for continuing to represent those parents in the fight to remove this leftist ideology, the unnecessary Safe Schools program, from the education department curriculum in South Australia.