Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Tuesday this week the coalition had its party room meeting and, instead of spending the time—time that they so desperately need to spend—talking about the critical issues that confront this country and the government's total lack of economic and political leadership, the party room spent most of that meeting time debating the Safe Schools Coalition Australia. Believe it or not, this is a mental health program aimed at helping young people who identify as LGBTI to be more accepted in their school communities. I want Australians to understand what the Safe Schools Coalition does and why it is such a necessary part of the life of young people in Australia today. As members of parliament, one of the most important things that we need to do is understand the people who live in our community who might be at risk. One of the things that are very clear when we look at all the evidence we have is that one of the most at-risk groups of people in our community for mental illness and serious mental health problems is young people who identify as LGBTI. These young people are six times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people, and one of the most gut-wrenching things that you can hear about this is that the average age of the first suicide attempt for these young people is 16.

When you read about the type of treatment that some of these young people are subjected to in their school environments, it is absolutely stomach churning. I do not want to upset anyone in the House, but we are talking here about things like 'faggot' being written on people's lockers, people being spat on in the schoolyards and young people being told that they have to leave their football team, all because of their sexual orientation or their gender. I do not think there is anyone in this country who understands this who could not see that there is a need here for us to help schools manage these problems.

The Safe Schools Coalition, unlike what has been reported by the Cory Bernardis of this world, is not some sort of Marxist political agenda. It is teachers and principals that came to government saying: 'We need help with this problem. We need help talking to our students about how we can create a safe environment for young people who are LGBTI.' The Safe Schools Coalition is a program where the Foundation for Young Australians, one of the most highly regarded young people's organisations in this country, helps to create materials. Schools can opt in to the program, so there are only about 500 schools in this country who participate in the program, and they get access to materials they can use to talk to their students about gender and sexuality issues.

I am really lucky because I have a really active Safe Schools Coalition school, Bentleigh Secondary College, in my electorate. I want to say hello to everyone who is on the Respect Committee at Bentleigh Secondary College. Thank you so much for having me to visit last year and talking to me about some of the things that you guys are doing. I am really proud of the work that you do and I am really impressed by the leadership that you are showing. What these young people do is have a lunchtime meeting, which initially had to be held in secret. But over time it has become a really core part of the activism of these really intelligent young people. They do leadership training together. They do a radio show on Joy FM and they facilitate conversation with people in the classroom. They have talked to me about the difference that has made to the sort of casual homophobia that they were seeing in the schoolyard, which has become really unacceptable in the schoolyard now. I think most Australians would agree that that is a really good thing.

Some might say 'What's the big fuss?' The Prime Minister has said, after what sounds to have been a terribly robust discussion in the party room, that there will be a review of the Safe Schools Coalition. What is wrong with having a review? One thing is that I am really worried about these young people, and I do not want anything about this program, which is working for them, to have to change. Also, it is just so disappointing, because the coalition is always going to have its fringe elements and will always have people in its ranks who come from the religious right. That is fine, because this parliament is a broad church, and lots of different voices should be heard. But it is incumbent on the Prime Minister, as the leader of that party and the leader of this country, to rein these behaviours in and not to legitimise them by saying that this is now going to be the view of that party room.

One of the things I am most concerned about and most disappointed by is the failure of leadership shown by our Prime Minister, who should have said, 'Enough is enough; this is a serious issue.' Instead of calling into question what these young people are doing, let's give them the respect and admiration that they deserve, because they are doing something no generation of Australians has been able to do before, and that is acknowledge the complexity of these issues and seriously tackle them. (Time expired)