Page 840 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016

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(a) that Safe Schools Coalition Australia is working to create inclusive and positive environments for same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students in 517 schools across Australia, including 23 schools in the ACT;

(b) the program plays an important role in supporting school communities develop strategies to address homophobic and transphobic bullying and exclusion;

(c) that 80 per cent of homophobic and transphobic bullying involving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning (LGBTIQ) young people occurs in a school environment, and that LGBTIQ people are three times more likely to experience depression than their peers;

(d) the Federal Government’s recent decision to review the Safe Schools program; and

(e) the inflammatory, divisive and inaccurate comments from members of the Federal Government, including:

(i) the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s description of the program as “social engineering”;

(ii) Senator Cory Bernardi’s assertion that the program “indoctrinates kids with Marxist cultural relativism”; and

(iii) George Christensen MP’s statement that the program “sounds a lot like the grooming work that a sexual predator might undertake”; and

(2) calls on the ACT Government to continue to:

(a) support the Safe Schools Coalition and their operation in the ACT;

(b) work with teachers, students and parents to address bullying, to ensure all students can learn in a safe and inclusive environment; and

Members of the Assembly would be aware that recently the federal government safe schools program has come under assault from the Turnbull government. I rise to speak on the importance of this program in ACT schools as a mechanism for promoting understanding and inclusion amongst our young people, and thus a more harmonious society.

We have had a string of unfortunate and offensive comments from federal Liberal parliamentarians that would have been better left unsaid. These people have been making derogatory and unsympathetic statements in the commonwealth parliament regarding LGBTI Australians. This is not productive dialogue that will lower the level of bullying in our schools. I am proud to be part of an ACT Labor government which fights homophobia. It is crucial that it starts when our people are young and progresses through the formative stages of their lives.

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