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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1747 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

There was some opposition to this within the ALP. A Mr Michael Cooney, who apparently is a member of the ALP, was reported as saying that he was concerned that only one stipulation was made in the policy on sex education. He said:

That stipulation is not that you must deal with values, not that you must deal with consent, not that it must be handled in a manner that is sensitive to the values of minority communities within government schools. None of those things are stipulated by the health policy committee because of the political ideological obsession of that committee.

Primary schools, primary schools ... We're talking about pre-pubescent children. No-one, older than 11 - the majority of them under the age of nine - must be taught contraception options.

I can understand a parent as a prime educator seeking to educate a child of that age about contraception but I do not accept that every child of that age must be taught about contraception options.

I say again, "every child of that age must be taught about contraception options". Mr Speaker, it is foolish to think that all children in ACT government schools should be subjected to lessons about contraception. That is simply not on. Many primary school students are simply not interested in such things. Many people would think that children should be allowed to be children and to have their childhood.

This Government supports the concept of sex education relevant to the age and psychological development of the child. There is no problem with education about contraception at the right time, providing parents give their informed consent. It seems that the ALP, in agreeing to an extreme position here in relation to teaching about contraception to very young children, has once more allowed itself to be held hostage by the looney Left. Here is a classic example of a motion coming out - - -

Mr Kaine: Here they come again.

MR STEFANIAK: Exactly; here they come again, Mr Kaine, out of left field. I think this is an example of ALP radical policy-making on the run. See a problem and shoot from the hip. As usual, everything but the target is hit, and, as usual, I think the ALP shoots itself in the foot. What other bizarre attempts at social engineering will we see from the ALP in the run-up to the next election? I will repeat Mr Cooney's comments for the benefit of Ms Reilly and Ms McRae. He says he does not accept that every child of that age must be taught about contraception options. Really, I think the ALP has just gone off on a complete tangent on this one. A huge number of Canberra voters obviously have considerable problems with this.

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