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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-03-23 Daily Xml
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Safe Schools Program

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:51): I rise today to talk about bullying and the Safe Schools program. I note that in recent days in this place both the opposition and the government have indicated their concerns that the office of a senator—Senator Cory Bernardi—was damaged and occupied and that his staff were put under duress. I concur with the comments of both the opposition and the government in standing against that behaviour and standing up against bullying. However, I want to talk today about the leadership we need on the Safe Schools program to stand up against bullying, not just when it occurs in a senator's office but when it occurs in our schools.

All members would have heard of the Safe Schools program by now and the review that was undertaken and reported on by William Louden on 11 March 2016. That, I believe, was a fair review and a most informative view for any members who are receiving the emails that I am certainly receiving, claiming such things as the Safe Schools program encourages chest binding or penis tucking or is all about unisex toilets. None of that is actually part of the Safe Schools program and, as I say, I encourage all members to read the review of the Safe Schools Coalition Australia Program Resources.

What I would say in response to those emails, which also bemoan the lack of attention to the three Rs, is that they were riddled with spelling and grammatical errors as well as factual errors, so I asked them to go and do some homework and also read that report. I draw attention to a very well-written piece that is currently doing the rounds of social media: an open letter to the PM of Australia written by Mike Cullen, whose website and blog is at writinginshadows.com. Mr Cullen, in his open letter to our current Prime Minister, begins with a range of pleas to the Prime Minister. I will read a truncated version of his pleas:

Dear Prime Minister

…When I read about your government's decision to not only make substantial changes to the Safe Schools programme, but to cease its funding I was initially enraged. I wasn't very coherent, but then again neither were a lot of people who took to social media in shock at the Government's decision.

Further on in his document, he states:

I struggled last night to think how I could put this in words. I wanted to be clear, but not rude. I decided to sleep on it. It seems to have been a good idea. Last night I was choking with rage, about all I was good for was inventing new swear words and that wouldn't have done anyone any good.

He notes that the pain in his life when he was a young boy who was different and the pain that he experienced growing up now as a 42-year-old man have manifested in ways he did not anticipate.

He outlines his story about when he was a child that he was told when he was younger that bullies will never win, that ultimately people see them for what they are—scared, lonely little people who need to tear others down to feel any form of their own power. He says to the Prime Minister:

Yesterday your government handed the bullies, both in your government and outside of it, the win that they've been craving, and the public recognition that hate is something to be nurtured.

The story I want to tell you begins in late January 1979; I was five years old and just starting kindergarten. I can still remember my family telling me how exciting it was to be a big boy, that going to school was going to be a great adventure. It was also the year I learnt my family tells lies. School was not a great adventure. It began as it ended, a tortuous place where a small boy was victimised and bullied daily.

As an only child I was very lucky–had family and cousins by the truckload, but in my family I was the only child my parents could have. The years before school were filled with fun and games and lots of love. Going to school I was told would be the same.

However, he goes on to say, the very first day he was called a fairy was the second day of kindergarten. He did not know when it meant at that time but, as he says, so it began: fairy became pansy, pansy became poofter, poofter become faggot, faggot became AIDS carrier. By that stage it was the early 1980s and HIV was all over the news. AIDS carrier became dirty faggot, dirty faggot became—well, it became many things, but of course that young five-year old boy, now 42, is calling on our Prime Minister to stand up against the bullies. I welcome anyone of any side of politics who stands up against bullies, whether they are in our schools or in our Senate offices.

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