Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

A society is ultimately judged on how it nurtures and cares for its most vulnerable—its children and its elderly—so how will our society be judged if we persist in allowing our children to be used as props in drag queen shows? A small group of men who want to caricature women in a highly sexualised fashion must not be allowed to corrupt the innocence of children. If drag queens want to perform for adults at stage shows or local pub bingo nights, good luck to them, but the insistence that drag queens must be able to gain an audience with children is where a line must be drawn.

No civilised society agrees to sexualise or confuse its children. We are still, at this moment, a civilised society, so it is still within our power to say no to the sexualisation of our children. I am absolutely committed to joining parents, grandparents and all civic-minded community members in opposing drag story times being promoted around our country. The civilised majority will not kneel to a vocal minority of fringe activists who want to push adult concepts of sex, gender and trans ideology onto kids. We will not be manipulated by hypocritical rhetoric about diversity or inclusion. Sexualising children is not diversity. Putting kids alongside drag queens is not inclusion. We say no to drag queen story time not because we are bigots but because we are civilised and we want to remain so. Do what you want around other adults, but I simply say this: leave the kids alone.