Page 873 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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Indeed, as my colleagues have said today, the safe schools program plays an important role in supporting school communities to develop strategies to address homophobic and transphobic bullying and exclusion. It is certainly disappointing that as a direct result of the Turnbull government, there remains uncertainty over the future of this necessary program whilst they undertake their review. I hope the Canberra Liberals will not stand by and watch as their federal counterparts try to take Canberra back to the dark ages. We have had one speaker from the Canberra Liberals, Mr Doszpot, and he could not address the issue. We are still unaware of the position of the Canberra Liberals and whether they are in support of the Safe Schools Coalition.
This is a very clear and direct motion. All it needs is for everyone in this place to say, “We support the program and support all our young people across our schools.” Instead, the amendment put forward by Mr Doszpot tries to completely gloss over the environment that some of these young people are living in, an environment that we should not hide from. We need to stand up and have the courage to give them the support they need. There is still time in this debate for the Canberra Liberals to show the broader community their stance on this. That amendment from Mr Doszpot, if that is the position of the Canberra Liberals, is telling of each and every one of you.
Canberra as a community has shown that we are progressive people who believe in the values of diversity and inclusion for all, especially for those that are most vulnerable. Research tells us that thousands of young people across Australia and the ACT—probably not in thousands in the ACT—experience homophobic and transphobic behaviour, discrimination and isolation in schools. That just should not happen. These experiences have serious and often long-lasting consequences for their health and wellbeing, attendance at school and academic achievement. The research also shows and establishes that a supportive and inclusive school environment is essential for all students to be happy and healthy and for them to grow and develop into happy and healthy adults.
I had a keen interest in ensuring that all our students are safe at schools, and I was very proud to introduce the Safe Schools Coalition into our schools in February last year. To me and to the colleagues on this side and to many of our schools and parents and teachers it just made sense to do this. I am very pleased to see that 23 out of our 87 schools and an independent school have signed up voluntarily to this because their teachers and their student community wanted them to do it. It made sense to do this so we could continue to lead the nation in education outcomes but also to have a clear focus on the social and emotional wellbeing of our young people. The safe schools program is a step towards that.
I wish I could say that it shocked me to see the Australian government throw squeaky wheels into the federal debate on this matter but, sadly, I was not shocked by that. I was also not surprised to see one of the most vocal opponents of this program, Senator Bernardi, promote on the front of his website—on which it has the banner, “Common sense lives here”—such language that proves that no common sense prevails at all. From this man, Senator Bernardi:
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