Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow morning I will be presenting a petition to the Senate which calls on the government and the education minister to remove all federal funding from the Safe Schools Coalition program because it goes beyond education and compels students into advocacy of a social engineering agenda. In less than a week, 9,499 concerned Australians signed the petition demonstrating that there are many that are worried about this propaganda in our schools.

Safe Schools Coalition Australia

Let us have a look at some of the examples that the All Of Us teaching resource, which is aimed at children as young as 11 years old, contains. It invites these 11-year-olds to imagine themselves in the role of a young person who is 16 years or older and going out with someone that they are really into. It tells students on one side of the room that their character is going out with someone of the same sex while the characters of those on the other side of the room are going out with someone of the opposite sex—these are 11-year-old children. It tells these children they have got to respond to 10 questions which they need to answer. If they do not answer in the affirmative, they are left standing humiliated in front of the class. Let us remember this program is designed to stamp out bullying, yet it bullies and intimidates children into giving the answers demanded by the authors.

They ask children to imagine that they have no genitals when they are talking about their gender. It says that most students will mention their genitals when identifying themselves as male or female and it extends this discussion by asking students what it would mean in terms of their gender if they were to lose that part of themselves. It beggars belief that we are asking 11-year-olds to identify themselves or imagine themselves as having no genitals. There are so many alarming aspects to these teachings, because it isolates children in front of their class. It bullies them and intimidates them if they do not comply with what is a very clear LGBTI agenda. It is a form of bullying. It is intimidation of students. It is pushing them to conform to a certain world view. It asks children as young as 11 to imagine themselves in a sexualised, or hypersexualised, environment.

One psychologist, Dr Nick Kowalenko, the head of child psychiatry at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said that it might be helpful for children experiencing identity issues, 'but if you're talking about every kid in the community, it might not be appropriate at 11'. I am going to back him up and say it is not appropriate at 11 for any child.

Equally alarming is the fact that the federal government is contributing $8 million to this propaganda, thanks initially to the Labor government in 2013 but continued under the current government. Quite frankly, our schools are in crisis. There is no doubt about that. The level of numeracy and literacy is declining and that is what schools are meant to be teaching: reading, writing and arithmetic. Schools should be places of learning not of propaganda. Children should be children. They should not be enlisted as political activists.

One extreme example of the political agenda that Safe Schools embodies is this concept of 'heteronormativity.' It is yet another concept created by the LGBTI advocates to denigrate the majority view. The Safe Schools teaching resources argue that even asking new parents whether their baby is a boy or a girl reinforces a 'heteronormative' worldview. Imagine that! Asking whether your newborn child is a boy or a girl is somehow some crime against progressive politics. These advocates say that reducing heteronormativity in schools can have good outcomes for everyone. I say that is bollocks.

We should, of course, remind children that just because someone is different from the majority it does not make them any less than anyone else, it does not make them inferior; it just makes them different. Regarding the majority view—the status quo, if you will, that has permeated centuries of human life—as some sort of evil concept that must be quashed by social engineering in the extreme has no place in our schools. It reflects a much broader social engineering agenda of the political left. It is an agenda that seeks to radically change Australian society.

Ms Roz Ward, one of the authors of the All Of Us teaching resources and coordinator of the Safe Schools Coalition in Victoria, spoke at last year's Marxism conference about what she regards as the cultural and social norms that capitalists have imposed on society, thereby stifling sexual freedoms. She said:

To smooth the operation of capitalism the ruling class has benefited, and continues to benefit, from oppressing our bodies, relationships, sexuality and gender identities alongside sexism, homophobia and transphobia; both serve to break the spirits of ordinary people, to consume our thoughts, to make us accept the status quo and for us to keep living or aspiring to live, or feel like we should live, in small social units and families where we must reproduce and take responsibility for those people in those units.

Imagine that! Most people would not regard the most basic and fundamental principle of our society as a construct to be toppled, but one of the leaders of the Safe Schools Coalition does. This is a political agenda they are seeking to drag into our schools—and drag our children into too. They want to make schools a part of an ideological revolution to free us from the horrors of capitalism and the constraints of family life.

As one commentator put it, 'Will parents of Australian children in schools really give their approval to a program that, on the pretext of preventing bullying, is really about deconstructing the moral and social fabric of our society, including the family?'

At this point I would like to mention a quote regarding schools and agendas. Here it is:

… it is completely inappropriate to enlist young people as the couriers of its prejudice.

  …   …   …

Any principal or teacher who exposes vulnerable children to such damaging messages not only violates their duty of care, but is a danger to students…

Some may think that is a quote from me, but it is not—far from it. These words were said by Mr Rodney Croome, one of the key drivers for homosexual marriage in Australia. He was criticising the Catholic Church who dared to stand up for their own beliefs amongst their own flock. A comment like this illustrates the double standards that are absolutely rife in this debate. On the one hand, Mr Croome is upset about the Catholic Church teaching Catholic views to students in Catholic schools. A transgender activist is even taking the Catholic Church through the courts in Tasmania because they were offended by the material. Yet, on the other hand, they expect schools to support the extreme LGBTI agenda of the Safe Schools Coalition.

As a side note, I wonder what this activist thinks of the teachings in this area by other schools such as Islamic schools. Unfortunately, they are all silent in that space. The political left's version of tolerance only extends to those who agree with them. It is almost a foreign concept to them that there are people out there who may have different views.

Here are a few more quotes. You might like to hear this Senator Simms—

Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Through the chair, Senator Bernardi.

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. 'Children should never be subjected to any form of pressure or indoctrination while they were in a government school.' 'Children are being forced into classes that do not reflect the values of their parents.' 'We want to make public schools safe places for parents who don't want their children indoctrinated.' 'The wishes of parents should not be compromised.' Guess where those quotes came from? Who would have thought? That is the New South Wales Greens quoting about indoctrination in schools. But judging by these comments, the Greens are against any form of pressure or indoctrination unless it is what they endorse. They want religion removed from schools unless it is their type of religious proselytising. They are against any pressure when it is an issue that they do not agree with, but they seem to have no problem with the pressure being applied to our children through the Safe Schools Coalition. Such hypocrisy is mind-boggling, but not unknown, from the political left.

Some will argue none of this really matters because the Safe Schools materials are voluntary. But by 2019 government schools in Victoria will be forced to join this program, and the pressure on other schools is increasing.

How long before independent and religious schools are forced to adopt the teachings that have already permeated our public school system? It is a valid question. We are seeing Catholic bishops being taken to the anti-discrimination commission for promoting Catholic thought and teaching. We are seeing concerted efforts to stop religious schools hiring teachers who do not share the same faith. So it is reasonable to ask: what attack is next for these schools? The Safe Schools Coalition goes beyond simply seeking to make schools safer places. It promotes a radical political and social agenda and seeks to indoctrinate students to make them its advocates.