George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The genesis, research, advocacy and ongoing support for the Safe Schools Program is run by La Trobe University's Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. In fact, the Safe Schools Coalition is run out of that La Trobe centre. Research by the Australian Family Association raised concerns about the centre's deputy director, Gary Dowsett, a long-time advocate of 'intergenerational sex', otherwise known as paedophilia. I refer to Dowsett's article 'Boiled lollies and band-aids' from the journal Gay Informationwhere he says: 'How different then is that gentle, tentative sexuality between parent and child from the love of a paedophile and his or her lover? That kind of love, warmth, support and nurture is an important part of the paedophilic relationship.' He argued in that journal article that paedophilia should be part of the gay movement and that it must be legally recognised and he depicted it as a part of a wider sexual liberation.

From 2000 to 2002, Dowsett was on the Victorian government's ministerial advisory committee on gay and lesbian health, putting him in a powerful position to advocate for the Victorian precursor program to Safe Schools. During the lead-up to Safe Schools receiving $8 million in taxpayer funds from Labor, Dowsett was the acting director of the La Trobe centre. I think it would shock many parents to know that a paedophilia advocate was overseeing the organisation that came up with the Safe Schools Program. Given this shocking information, it is imperative that all federal funding to Safe Schools be suspended immediately pending a full parliamentary inquiry. I seek leave to table Dowsett's article.

Leave not granted.