Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Usually when irrelevant right-wing senators use the Senate to put forward offensive ideas I don't engage. I don't like to give them the satisfaction of knowing how much they've provoked me or to risk giving more airtime to their bigoted views, but this weekend in Melbourne we saw what can happen when transphobia goes unchecked, so I'm calling this motion what it is. It's a dog whistle to the anti-trans demonstrators who organised the rally in Melbourne on Saturday and who use their platform to vilify trans people and incite hate; it's a dog whistle to the Neo-Nazis who supported the rally and who stood on the steps of the Victorian parliament giving Nazi salutes and it's a dog whistle to the police who used excessive force and assaulted peaceful trans people and allies, while allowing transphobic demonstrators and Neo-Nazis to organise.

What happened on Saturday shows the ideological similarities between anti-trans campaigners and the far right: both groups are targeting marginalised members of our community and stoking fear, hatred and violence towards them. It's clear that far right groups are using transphobic campaigns to recruit people to their own extremism. But we know that they are also racist and antisemitic. So I say to all trans and gender-diverse people, as well as Jewish people and people of colour who are still reeling from the weekend: I'm sorry. You don't deserve what happened then, and you don't deserve the ongoing attacks on your very identity that are being waged in this parliament. Gender diversity does not need to be 'remedied'. Trans and gender-diverse people need to be loved and celebrated.

So to all the trans kids and young people out there: I want you to know that I and the Greens have got your back and I will go into bat for you at any chance I get. You deserve to be celebrated. You deserve to be safe to be yourself. You deserve all the good things in the world because you are magnificent.

We must do more than call out transphobia. We need to work together to actively dismantle it, because trans rights are non-negotiable.