WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 Colleagues and friends, welcome, welcome. My name's John Williams. I'm the Pro Vice 2 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:10.220 Chancellor of Research Operations at the University of Adelaide, but I'm also privileged to be 3 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:14.660 a Director on the Board of the Adelaide Festival Ideas, so thank you very much for your attendance 4 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:20.560 here today. Welcome to the festival, as you've probably been here for a number of days. Today's 5 00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:28.420 session is a 101 on safe schools with Benjamin Law, essayist, columnist, and I think I'd 6 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:37.220 have to say a much-needed voice in this very contested area of public policy. I am the 7 00:00:37.220 --> 00:00:42.500 Director of the South Australian Law Reform Institute, and during our review of the LGBTIQ 8 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:46.940 rights here in South Australia, we asked one of the questions about changing the Equal 9 00:00:46.940 --> 00:00:51.600 Opportunities Act to take away an exemption that a lot of the faith schools have in terms 10 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:58.340 of employment, and we heard a lot of material about safe schools. It became quite clear 11 00:00:58.340 --> 00:00:58.400 that there was a lot of material about safe schools, and it became quite clear that there 12 00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:03.320 was no agreed view of what actually safe schools were, and I'm hoping to hear today 13 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:04.500 more on that issue. 14 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:12.660 G'day everyone. Thank you so much for making the time, especially your weekends, to listen 15 00:01:12.660 --> 00:01:18.000 to me today. I'd like to start by acknowledging that we're on Kaurna land, and that Kaurna 16 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.400 people, like all First Nations Australians, have been telling stories and sharing information 17 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:27.280 here for tens of thousands of years, and as a non-Indigenous Australian, I'm particularly 18 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:28.280 grateful to Elders. 19 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:31.760 I'm very grateful to Elders past and present that we can continue doing that here on Aboriginal 20 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:32.160 land. 21 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:38.040 So, quick pop quiz, because this is about education. Pop quiz, put up your hand if you're 22 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:44.840 currently the parent or the guardian of school-aged kids. Keep those hands up. Put your hands 23 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:50.760 up if you've got school-aged children in your life. Great. Put up your hand if, you know, 24 00:01:51.660 --> 00:01:58.260 school-aged kids are just important to you. You're all in the right place. You're all 25 00:01:58.260 --> 00:01:59.060 in the right place. 26 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:05.300 I think anyone invested in the conversation around safe schools all want the best for 27 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:09.320 kids, and that's actually a really difficult thing to acknowledge, that both critics and 28 00:02:09.320 --> 00:02:15.800 supporters of safe schools are all about the kids. But of course, what constitutes what's 29 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:19.140 best for children, that's where the heart of the debate lies. 30 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:26.380 You've probably heard a lot about safe schools in the media for the entire year of 2016. 31 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:33.600 It seemed to be the kind of culture war story of that year. This is the talk for people 32 00:02:33.600 --> 00:02:39.960 who've read all of those stories, been engaged in online fights about safe schools, and still 33 00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:47.040 suspect that there must be more to that discussion. It's for people who are maybe tired of seeing 34 00:02:47.040 --> 00:02:54.900 safe schools used as a point scoring platform for people in a bigger culture war. It's for 35 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:55.740 parents and guardians. 36 00:02:55.880 --> 00:02:56.360 It's for those who are maybe not so familiar with the culture war. It's for those who are 37 00:02:56.380 --> 00:03:00.480 not used to it, and it's for people with school age kids in their lives, who've read the 38 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:04.420 countless newspaper reports, and are frankly still confused about what safe schools is, 39 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:10.220 whether it's necessary, why it's necessary, or why it's in our schools in the first place. 40 00:03:10.740 --> 00:03:15.700 There are a lot of different debates going on about, well, why do safe schools exist 41 00:03:15.700 --> 00:03:20.360 as an anti-bullying initiative, considering that kids get bullied for so many reasons. 42 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:25.820 Why do we need to focus specifically on LGBTIQ, or questioning young people, and that's 43 00:03:25.820 --> 00:03:28.440 That's a very legitimate question and one that I'll address. 44 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:36.720 It's also, as much as it's a story and a discussion about education and about kids, this is also 45 00:03:36.720 --> 00:03:38.480 a story about the media. 46 00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:44.700 And I think if you follow the Safe School Saga closely, it should shake your faith in 47 00:03:44.700 --> 00:03:48.520 the integrity of Australian media in the 21st century. 48 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.500 So this is what I wrote last year, actually, Moral Panic 101. 49 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:55.660 It was a quarterly essay that you can still read. 50 00:03:56.160 --> 00:04:02.240 And even though I think in some ways it's strange for me to be talking about this still 51 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:09.520 in 2018, there is a lot of relevance for this story, specifically in South Australia, for 52 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:10.680 reasons I'll tell you about soon. 53 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:12.400 So why did I write this? 54 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:17.860 As you might know, I'm not someone who's necessarily known first and foremost for serious investigative 55 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:18.440 journalism. 56 00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:21.500 I'm the author of The Family Law. 57 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:23.480 It's a black comedy book. 58 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:28.760 It's a memoir about growing up gay and Asian in regional Queensland during the height of 59 00:04:28.760 --> 00:04:32.140 Hansonism as my parents' marriage fell apart around me. 60 00:04:32.220 --> 00:04:33.520 It's the classic Australian story. 61 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:34.860 I'm sure you can all relate to it. 62 00:04:35.780 --> 00:04:38.140 That's been turned into an SBS TV show. 63 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:40.140 We're heading into our third series soon. 64 00:04:41.140 --> 00:04:43.840 That story, yes, is about ethnicity. 65 00:04:44.020 --> 00:04:45.400 It's about growing up different. 66 00:04:45.700 --> 00:04:51.160 It's about growing up in a large family and dealing with the consequences of separation 67 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:51.800 and divorce. 68 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:57.060 But a part of that story and the story that we'll be exploring in our third and final 69 00:04:57.060 --> 00:05:02.320 season is about another aspect of identity and that is, of course, sexuality. 70 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:07.080 Because if you can't tell from this photo, young Benjamin was, of course, going to grow 71 00:05:07.080 --> 00:05:07.720 up to be gay. 72 00:05:08.080 --> 00:05:14.120 And there is evidence of that in most LGBTIQ kids' photo albums. 73 00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:19.520 We always like to joke that the evidence is there from the start. 74 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:25.180 There are whole blogs dedicated to these photos. 75 00:05:25.900 --> 00:05:30.140 And there are whole photo albums in my family archives that are just dedicated to mine. 76 00:05:32.200 --> 00:05:39.440 And it's great to look back and to be able to see those photos and to laugh and to celebrate 77 00:05:39.440 --> 00:05:41.500 how far we've come. 78 00:05:41.900 --> 00:05:47.600 I grew up in Queensland, which was the last mainland Australian state to decriminalize 79 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:49.860 homosexuality in 1990. 80 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:51.780 It would be many years ago. 81 00:05:51.780 --> 00:05:54.080 It was later before Tasmania did the same. 82 00:05:54.420 --> 00:06:00.800 And that leaves a legacy on us personally, but on us politically as well. 83 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:05.220 We've only just come through the daylight of the same-sex marriage postal survey. 84 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:10.120 And just because laws change doesn't mean that social attitudes do straight away. 85 00:06:10.320 --> 00:06:12.340 And it doesn't mean that schoolyards do. 86 00:06:13.280 --> 00:06:17.960 We've known for a very long time in Australia that growing up gay or lesbian, bisexual, 87 00:06:18.340 --> 00:06:20.260 transgender or gender non-conforming. 88 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:21.760 Or even just simply underage. 89 00:06:21.760 --> 00:06:28.220 Are we even 90 00:06:43.260 --> 00:06:49.720 2010 study found that the proportion of sexuality-based abuse experienced at school had actually increased 91 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:55.920 since the last study was done. You'd expect that progress goes forward, but in some situations 92 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:01.680 and in the Australian context, we can actually see a spike in homophobic and transphobic 93 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:08.700 abuse in the schoolyard. So there are situations where we have seen it get worse. Worse, rather. 94 00:07:08.700 --> 00:07:14.920 And I know that this sounds obvious, because when we talk about homophobia and transphobia, 95 00:07:14.960 --> 00:07:20.020 it sounds like a very boutique issue. When one in 11 Australians, and therefore one in 11 96 00:07:20.020 --> 00:07:26.420 young Australians, identify as LGBTIQ, we're like, well, that's a significant number, 97 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:32.020 but it's still one in 11. But I should also point out that homophobia and transphobia doesn't just 98 00:07:32.020 --> 00:07:38.340 affect queer kids and teenagers. It affects straight and cisgender kids and teenagers as 99 00:07:38.340 --> 00:07:38.560 well. 100 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:45.940 We use homophobia and transphobia to police behaviour in each other. The slurs that we use 101 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:53.720 restrict the amount of affection that we show each other, the way that we communicate our feelings 102 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:58.360 with each other, and especially the way that men communicate with each other in this country. 103 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:06.700 Homophobia is not a boutique concern. It affects all young people in Australia. Kids who are queer 104 00:08:06.700 --> 00:08:08.500 and questioning in Australia, 105 00:08:08.700 --> 00:08:14.960 report higher rates of truancy and are far more likely to leave school before completion. 106 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:22.400 There are high rates of abuse, suicidality, suicide, and self-harm. And independent studies 107 00:08:22.400 --> 00:08:28.820 show consistently that LGBTIQ Australians have the highest rates of suicidality of any demographic 108 00:08:28.820 --> 00:08:35.520 in this country. Apply that to young people, and we've really got a crisis on our hands. 109 00:08:36.520 --> 00:08:37.960 And some kids do. 110 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:40.480 Still meet a very tragic fate. 111 00:08:41.340 --> 00:08:51.540 This is Tyron Unsworth. He was a young 13-year-old kid who lived in Brisbane, grew up in Queensland 112 00:08:51.540 --> 00:08:58.160 like me. He's Indigenous. He was a fair, freckly, curly-haired guy. He was a sassy kid who danced 113 00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:07.100 and worshipped at the altars of Lady Gaga and Beyonce. And he took his own life in November 2016. 114 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:17.000 You might remember this story because I certainly do, and I still remember the pain that I felt, 115 00:09:17.160 --> 00:09:21.460 even though this is someone that I didn't personally know, the pain that I felt that 116 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:27.520 someone who had just turned 13 had taken his own life. But I also didn't feel surprised 117 00:09:28.880 --> 00:09:35.520 because if you grow up in this country, either queer or suspected to be queer, 118 00:09:36.420 --> 00:09:45.100 that causes wounds. His mother, Amanda, raged in the Courier Mail that Tyrone had been bullied 119 00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:52.160 to death for being gay. And the Courier Mail, a news limited masthead in Queensland, ran the 120 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:56.840 bruising headline that day of mum's anguish they ended up getting to him. 121 00:09:58.540 --> 00:10:04.380 And in amongst this whole debate was this discussion about safe schools. Safe schools 122 00:10:04.380 --> 00:10:05.500 was widely known as the most important thing in the world. And it was a very important 123 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:11.000 thing to be known by that stage as an anti-bullying initiative for LGBTIQ students. And by the 124 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.420 time that Unsworth had taken his own life, Australia's only national broadsheet newspaper, 125 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:21.000 The Australian, which was widely considered to be this country's newspaper of record, 126 00:10:21.340 --> 00:10:29.640 was in its 10th consecutive month of indefatigable sustained coverage and criticism of this program 127 00:10:29.640 --> 00:10:35.320 or this initiative called Safe Schools Coalition Australia. And of course, that conversation 128 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:42.780 dominated 2016. Safe Schools Australia was a federally funded program, launched in 2014, 129 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:48.880 to support LGBTIQ school students in this country. And it didn't really cost that much, 130 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:53.900 it was $8 million dollars over three years. And just to give a kind of compare and contrast, 131 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:59.940 that was $8 million dollars over three years, by contrast, the National School Chaplaincy 132 00:10:59.940 --> 00:11:05.300 Program, costs $243.8 million dollars, over three years, against $4.4 million dollars, 133 00:11:05.300 --> 00:11:11.400 four years. So it was a very inexpensive initiative. It was an initiative that was 134 00:11:11.400 --> 00:11:17.200 pioneered originally in Victoria, which then became a federal initiative. And when it was launched 135 00:11:18.400 --> 00:11:25.980 federally, safe schools were seen by all parties as largely a no-brainer. It was pretty controversial, 136 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:31.460 it was pretty cheap, and something had to be done for those statistics that I reeled 137 00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:37.480 before you earlier. The fact that there are high rates of suicidality, bullying, harassment, abuse 138 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:46.100 amongst LGBTIQ youth. The fact or the sentiment that it was a no-brainer really changed in February 139 00:11:46.100 --> 00:11:53.480 2016, when The Australian ran its first front page story excoriating the safe schools program, 140 00:11:53.760 --> 00:11:59.160 and its headline was, as you can see, activists push taxpayer-funded gay manual in schools, 141 00:11:59.540 --> 00:12:01.100 which sounded pretty sensational. 142 00:12:01.460 --> 00:12:08.900 And it sounded very understandably alarming. And as a result, people were alarmed. Because 143 00:12:08.900 --> 00:12:14.680 within hours of that story breaking and making a front page of The Australian, safe schools 144 00:12:14.680 --> 00:12:21.820 was debated in federal parliament. Within days, coalition backbenches had pledged to 145 00:12:21.820 --> 00:12:26.640 destroy it. And within a fortnight, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull requested Education 146 00:12:26.640 --> 00:12:29.480 Minister Simon Birmingham launch a review into it. 147 00:12:30.020 --> 00:12:31.440 And after one month, it was a day of 148 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:37.580 Birmingham confirmed Safe Schools funding would not be renewed. That didn't 149 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:41.820 satisfy a lot of people and it didn't mean that the coverage stopped because 150 00:12:41.820 --> 00:12:47.980 as long as Safe Schools existed in any form so too would those stories in the 151 00:12:47.980 --> 00:12:51.720 Australian and in News Corp's tabloids especially the Daily Telegraph and the 152 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:57.000 Herald Sun. Now those attacks over Safe Schools in 2016 angered a lot of people 153 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:02.160 within the LGBTIQ community understandably including myself and I 154 00:13:02.160 --> 00:13:07.360 don't think that this is a story that can be divorced from our personal 155 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:13.660 perspectives. I wrote the quarterly essay from a personal perspective. I come from 156 00:13:13.660 --> 00:13:18.820 the School of Journalism where I don't believe that such a thing as an 157 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:25.160 objective story exists. I do believe that fair stories exist. I don't think any of 158 00:13:25.160 --> 00:13:26.980 us can disentangle the work of the 159 00:13:26.980 --> 00:13:33.020 we do and the stories you tell from our personal background and similarly this 160 00:13:33.020 --> 00:13:37.660 is this is a discussion that I think we can all have but it's going to be pretty 161 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:41.800 difficult to divorce this discussion from the kids that you know and take 162 00:13:41.800 --> 00:13:48.160 care of in your own lives. So by the time a 13 year old boy had taken his own life 163 00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:53.080 allegedly because he felt unsafe for being gay that anger boiled over for a 164 00:13:53.080 --> 00:13:56.640 lot of people myself included and I found myself extremely 165 00:13:56.640 --> 00:13:56.960 concerned about the fact that I was a gay and I found myself extremely 166 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:01.800 frustrated and furious by that coverage of Safe Schools in the Australian. When 167 00:14:01.800 --> 00:14:06.240 Tyron Unsworth took his own life I was actually in China and I was so angry that 168 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:11.440 I lept over the Chinese firewall with a VPN just so I could get on to Twitter. A 169 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.780 lot of people were posting about Unsworth and Safe Schools, a lot of hot 170 00:14:15.780 --> 00:14:24.620 takes and so I of course arrogantly and forthrightly offered my own and I wrote 171 00:14:25.160 --> 00:14:26.940 tell your kids no matter how you handle it, we will not be afraid of you. Tell your kids no matter how you handle it, we will not be afraid of you. 172 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:32.040 young that being LGBTI is fine that bullying is torture and then demand 173 00:14:32.040 --> 00:14:38.680 Safe Schools. It was months and months later after I tweeted this and I did my 174 00:14:38.680 --> 00:14:43.500 own research into Safe Schools that I realized that that tweet was actually 175 00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:49.420 something about which I knew nothing about in a way. I'd read a lot about Safe 176 00:14:49.420 --> 00:14:54.720 Schools obviously via the Australian and also in Fairfax and the ABC but you know 177 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:56.920 most of my knowledge I now realize how to use it and I think that's a great way to 178 00:14:56.920 --> 00:15:02.520 have been gleaned from stories that were misleading, inadequate and at worse 179 00:15:02.520 --> 00:15:08.660 simply false. My tweet in its own way was this small drop in this kind of 180 00:15:08.660 --> 00:15:13.500 pointless slurry of commentary about Safe Schools all built on shaky 181 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:21.240 foundations and half truths. So I started doing my research what were we actually 182 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:26.640 talking about and what I discovered was that Safe Schools isn't what critics 183 00:15:26.640 --> 00:15:30.520 or even what some supporters have told you it actually is. 184 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:34.420 I also discovered we should all be worried about safe schools, 185 00:15:34.500 --> 00:15:36.980 but not for the reasons that we've been told. 186 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:42.160 And I also discovered that the coverage of safe schools by News Limited, 187 00:15:42.400 --> 00:15:44.660 a company for which I actually worked for many years, 188 00:15:45.380 --> 00:15:49.840 should shake our faith in journalism and in democracy in this country. 189 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:56.120 What I also discovered was that for all of the critics of safe schools, 190 00:15:56.120 --> 00:16:00.960 in conservative parliaments, state-based parliaments and the federal parliament, 191 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:05.860 that it was actually state conservative and federal conservative leaders 192 00:16:05.860 --> 00:16:07.100 that launched safe schools. 193 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.700 On a state level, that was Ted Ballyew in Victoria. 194 00:16:10.020 --> 00:16:13.200 And on a federal level, the person who launched safe schools 195 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:15.480 while being Prime Minister was Tony Abbott. 196 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:17.980 Just in case you forgot what he looked like. 197 00:16:21.540 --> 00:16:24.240 Okay, so here's a rough timeline of what actually happened. 198 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:25.960 In 2010... 199 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:27.880 Safe Schools Coalition Victoria launched. 200 00:16:29.040 --> 00:16:33.420 In 2011, Safe Schools Coalition Victoria was considered by the conservatives in Victoria 201 00:16:33.420 --> 00:16:39.500 to be so successful that it was given an extra $416,000 in funding. 202 00:16:39.620 --> 00:16:41.800 That was over four times its original budget. 203 00:16:42.060 --> 00:16:45.520 You got to a point in Victoria's state parliament 204 00:16:45.520 --> 00:16:49.540 that both the conservatives and Labor were actually arguing 205 00:16:49.540 --> 00:16:51.720 over who could support safe schools more. 206 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:55.600 In 2014, in June, 207 00:16:56.120 --> 00:17:00.160 Tony Abbott's coalition launched Safe Schools Coalition Australia. 208 00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:01.160 To much applause. 209 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:07.780 Then in 2015, there was a teacher training resource called All of Us. 210 00:17:07.800 --> 00:17:09.440 That was an optional training resource. 211 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:16.400 And that led to, in February 2016, the Australian reporting on a taxpayer funded program 212 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:17.940 designed by gay activists. 213 00:17:18.300 --> 00:17:25.680 Monday after a report, George Christensen, Barnaby Joyce, Family First, Bob Day attacks safe schools in Parliament. 214 00:17:26.120 --> 00:17:33.120 And a Tuesday after the report, Malcolm Turnbull insists Simon Birmingham launches a review. 215 00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:35.500 I've just got some footage from that peer reader. 216 00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:37.660 We might need to just manually play this. 217 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:38.700 Thanks, Long. 218 00:17:39.620 --> 00:17:46.120 We see this ridiculous, this ridiculous absurd obsession by the right wing of the Liberal Party 219 00:17:46.120 --> 00:17:48.740 about safe schools and making sure that we have... 220 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:49.420 That'd be the chap. 221 00:17:50.020 --> 00:17:52.140 We see this ridiculous obsession... 222 00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:53.000 At least I'm honest, Bill. 223 00:17:53.080 --> 00:17:53.640 Yeah, well... 224 00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:54.440 You're a fraud, mate. 225 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:54.800 No, mate. 226 00:17:54.840 --> 00:17:56.100 At least I'm not a homophobic. 227 00:17:56.100 --> 00:17:56.580 I'm a fraud, by the way. 228 00:17:56.700 --> 00:17:58.400 So let's just do the right thing here. 229 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:00.240 So things are pretty heated. 230 00:18:00.840 --> 00:18:07.340 Labor started defending a program that the Coalition had actually launched on a federal level. 231 00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:16.100 And you start seeing a very angry backbench who, remember, lost Tony Abbott to the backbench. 232 00:18:16.340 --> 00:18:21.180 This is now the religious right that's been disenfranchised and has been taken over by Malcolm Turnbull. 233 00:18:21.260 --> 00:18:23.400 They see an opportunity. 234 00:18:24.620 --> 00:18:28.760 Specifically, George Christensen also sees an opportunity. 235 00:18:30.840 --> 00:18:32.200 Call the member for Dawson. 236 00:18:32.340 --> 00:18:33.680 Well, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. 237 00:18:33.860 --> 00:18:42.900 I rise as a voice for thousands of parents who have been shocked when they discover how the ironically named Safe Schools Program is indoctrinating their children. 238 00:18:43.300 --> 00:18:51.680 When those parents consider just how unsafe this program is, they wonder why the federal government is allowing it to be implemented in schools, 239 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:55.560 much less spending $8 million of taxpayer money to fund it. 240 00:18:55.820 --> 00:19:07.000 Some of the things that the Safe Schools Coalition Australia are recommending to school students include pornographic web content, sex shops, adult online communities, and sex clubs. 241 00:19:08.140 --> 00:19:13.740 So if this sounds like a bit of a stretch, that's because it is. 242 00:19:14.040 --> 00:19:21.360 What George Christensen was referring to was the fact that this optional resource that had been launched for teachers, all of us, 243 00:19:21.360 --> 00:19:21.660 was not a good idea. 244 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:29.120 It was produced in partnership with an organization called Minus18 that is there for LGBTIQ youth. 245 00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:37.300 Now, Minus18's website isn't a part of the Safe Schools material, but if you do go externally to the Minus18 website, 246 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:46.220 you'd find a link on one website among many others which contained, in its own myriad links, a link to another website. 247 00:19:46.780 --> 00:19:50.260 That website, that was linked three times, removed, 248 00:19:50.260 --> 00:19:53.100 contained a link to an S&M establishment. 249 00:19:53.740 --> 00:20:01.460 So that's a pretty mighty long bow to draw by saying that Safe Schools actively promotes pornography and S&M establishments, 250 00:20:01.460 --> 00:20:05.520 but, you know, as I say in the essay, George Christensen loves a good pool. 251 00:20:07.580 --> 00:20:15.840 And, you know, it's hard to know whether to pity or admire George Christensen and his staff for trawling through all those websites only to get to a gay one. 252 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:17.640 Must have taken hours. 253 00:20:19.100 --> 00:20:20.140 Later, former... 254 00:20:20.140 --> 00:20:23.300 Former Liberal Prime Ministers were wheeled out to pronounce on the issue. 255 00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:31.300 And on Sky News, John Howard said that Bill Shorten's defense of Safe Schools just showed how out of touch he is with middle Australia, 256 00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:35.980 while Tony Abbott labeled it an exercise in social engineering, 257 00:20:36.360 --> 00:20:41.960 somehow forgetting it was his government that had launched the thing in the first place. 258 00:20:43.080 --> 00:20:44.940 Okay, so this is all fun and games. 259 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:46.100 We're debating over this. 260 00:20:46.340 --> 00:20:50.120 But in all of this, what actually is Safe Schools? 261 00:20:50.120 --> 00:20:56.080 I promised that I'd give you a 101, so I'm going to tell you actually what Safe Schools is and how it works. 262 00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:01.100 Safe Schools, both on its state incarnation and its federal incarnation, 263 00:21:01.420 --> 00:21:08.620 was an initiative to help principals, teachers and school staff support LGBTIQ kids at school. 264 00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:14.100 It was actually something that teachers and principals have been asking for for a long, long time. 265 00:21:14.300 --> 00:21:19.580 If you've worked in education in this country, you will have encountered same-sex attracted youth, 266 00:21:19.580 --> 00:21:26.680 and statistically, if you come from a school with over 100 students, you will have encountered a transgender student. 267 00:21:27.020 --> 00:21:33.040 And teachers and principals struggle to know how to make sure those kids are kept safe at school, 268 00:21:33.300 --> 00:21:40.220 because they know that also by talking about sexuality or talking about sexuality to young people, 269 00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:45.020 that's a really tricky area and that they can get into trouble. 270 00:21:45.260 --> 00:21:47.380 So they've actually been requesting this for a long time. 271 00:21:47.660 --> 00:21:49.560 So it was devised because it's part of the policy. 272 00:21:49.580 --> 00:21:53.400 It's been proven in research that general anti-bullying programs 273 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:58.220 that don't actually address homophobia and transphobia specifically, 274 00:21:58.620 --> 00:22:04.180 don't actually reduce rates of homophobic and transphobic bullying in the schoolyard. 275 00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:08.740 It was developed by academics and policy makers at La Trobe University. 276 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:13.700 And some people say, you know, this is an anti-bullying initiative, 277 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:17.440 but the founders, the co-founders of the original program say 278 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:19.560 that's actually kind of a mischaracterized term. 279 00:22:19.580 --> 00:22:20.660 It's a mischaracterization in a way. 280 00:22:20.820 --> 00:22:24.360 Yes, they hope that bullying is reduced through the program, 281 00:22:24.560 --> 00:22:26.780 but as one of the co-founders put it, 282 00:22:26.840 --> 00:22:31.340 the most effective way to reduce bullying around gender and sexuality 283 00:22:31.340 --> 00:22:38.200 is to have more positive and inclusive schools that feel confident in addressing those issues head on. 284 00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:42.520 When we think about anti-homophobia campaigns and anti-transphobia campaigns, 285 00:22:42.780 --> 00:22:46.420 it's often framed within very kind of sad terms, 286 00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:48.700 like how sad it is to be a homosexual, 287 00:22:48.700 --> 00:22:52.700 how sad it is to be gender non-conforming, 288 00:22:53.360 --> 00:22:55.800 how sad it is to be bullied. 289 00:22:55.960 --> 00:22:58.360 And that's an important message there, 290 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:02.060 but that's not actually the whole experience of being an LGBTIQ person. 291 00:23:02.780 --> 00:23:05.840 The only options and messaging that we should have 292 00:23:05.840 --> 00:23:09.380 shouldn't just be reduced to pity, shame and fear. 293 00:23:10.100 --> 00:23:16.080 Now, what principals actually sign when they sign up to being a Safe Schools 294 00:23:16.080 --> 00:23:18.380 is a document that outlines, 295 00:23:18.700 --> 00:23:20.640 the only formal requirement, 296 00:23:20.980 --> 00:23:23.280 and this is a verbatim quote from the document, 297 00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:28.840 the only formal requirement for a school to become a member of a Safe Schools coalition 298 00:23:29.700 --> 00:23:33.520 is the completion of a membership form signed by the school principal, 299 00:23:33.820 --> 00:23:37.940 and in signing, principals make a genuine commitment to building a school 300 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:40.820 free from homophobia and transphobia 301 00:23:40.820 --> 00:23:44.940 and to support gender diversity, intersex and sexual diversity. 302 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:48.440 Safe Schools Coalition, Australian member schools, 303 00:23:48.700 --> 00:23:51.540 are not expected to be 100% safe. 304 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:52.740 That's it. 305 00:23:53.080 --> 00:23:57.280 That's the only mandatory requirement from school principals. 306 00:23:58.080 --> 00:24:01.420 Now, you have a lot of options if you sign up to be a Safe School. 307 00:24:01.540 --> 00:24:06.280 You are encouraged to do professional training amongst your staff, 308 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:09.220 where staff learn things like statistics, 309 00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:13.080 the fact that around 10% of people are same-sex attracted, 310 00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:17.100 around 4% of people are transgender or gender diverse, 311 00:24:17.100 --> 00:24:18.680 and roughly 1.6% of people are gay. 312 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:21.480 And 7% of people are born with an intersex condition. 313 00:24:21.840 --> 00:24:22.840 So it's a bit of a 101. 314 00:24:24.100 --> 00:24:27.480 Teachers then learn the impact of homophobia on students. 315 00:24:27.540 --> 00:24:29.620 That's all the stuff that I just told you before. 316 00:24:30.780 --> 00:24:33.400 Most controversially, perhaps, they are also taught 317 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:40.640 that for some people, their gender identity is on a spectrum of gender identity. 318 00:24:41.060 --> 00:24:43.220 So yes, we know the binary of male and female, 319 00:24:43.420 --> 00:24:45.820 but some people identify in the middle. 320 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:48.520 And since the inception of Safe Schools, 321 00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:50.500 even now in 2018, 322 00:24:50.900 --> 00:24:53.760 it's worth noting that no school principal or teacher 323 00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:57.120 has made a complaint about the program. 324 00:24:57.700 --> 00:25:00.060 So for all the parents complaining about the program, 325 00:25:00.380 --> 00:25:01.420 you've got to ask yourself, 326 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:05.060 if it's this bad, and if it's this controversial, 327 00:25:05.360 --> 00:25:08.220 and if it's this corrosive and harmful to school students, 328 00:25:08.340 --> 00:25:12.140 why wouldn't any teacher have spoken about it? 329 00:25:13.080 --> 00:25:17.320 After its success, school staff started asking Safe Schools 330 00:25:17.320 --> 00:25:18.680 for optional materials they could use. 331 00:25:18.700 --> 00:25:20.840 And as I said before, 332 00:25:21.020 --> 00:25:23.320 they devised something called All of Us, 333 00:25:23.420 --> 00:25:26.340 and this is where shit got real. 334 00:25:26.620 --> 00:25:28.320 What does All of Us look like? 335 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:34.400 All of Us is a very friendly electronic resource 336 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:36.200 that centres full colour, 337 00:25:36.380 --> 00:25:41.900 that centres on the various experiences of LGBTIQ youth. 338 00:25:42.100 --> 00:25:45.460 Our community's acronym is broad and unwieldy 339 00:25:45.460 --> 00:25:48.680 because there is no one singular experience of being a LGBT. 340 00:25:48.700 --> 00:25:49.460 There is no one singular experience of being LGBTQ. 341 00:25:50.080 --> 00:25:54.140 There is no even a singular experience of being L or G or B or T. 342 00:25:54.360 --> 00:25:58.120 And so it wanted to capture the diversity of people's experiences, 343 00:25:58.360 --> 00:26:00.140 especially young people's experiences. 344 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:03.760 And so you've got booklet information 345 00:26:03.760 --> 00:26:08.000 about one person's experience of being a lesbian, 346 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:09.880 another person's experience of being gay, 347 00:26:10.020 --> 00:26:11.760 another person's experience of being transgender, 348 00:26:12.080 --> 00:26:15.500 and there are electronic videos on YouTube that they can watch. 349 00:26:15.760 --> 00:26:18.520 Those videos are videos you can watch as well. 350 00:26:18.520 --> 00:26:21.560 So when people have all these conspiracy theories about safe schools, 351 00:26:21.660 --> 00:26:25.000 all those materials that have ever been developed out of safe schools 352 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:28.060 are freely available online for parents to use and browse. 353 00:26:30.340 --> 00:26:36.100 This resource was recommended for years seven, eight and up. 354 00:26:36.780 --> 00:26:37.520 Now, for anyone... 355 00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:40.960 That was a real sticking point in the conversation about safe schools, 356 00:26:41.060 --> 00:26:43.520 but for anyone who questions the age appropriateness 357 00:26:44.080 --> 00:26:48.500 of discussing issues of gender and sexuality in years seven and eight, 358 00:26:48.520 --> 00:26:51.560 or thinks of this stuff as scandalous or shocking, 359 00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:55.580 can I just put forward that to develop anything 360 00:26:55.580 --> 00:26:57.520 that ends up on the curriculum 361 00:26:57.520 --> 00:27:03.940 really requires aggressive, meticulous and almost dull reviewing. 362 00:27:04.860 --> 00:27:08.320 This resource was developed with consultation 363 00:27:08.320 --> 00:27:11.680 of independent curriculum experts, 364 00:27:11.840 --> 00:27:15.400 and it was thoroughly tested and piloted in real schools, 365 00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:17.920 and it got federal funding. 366 00:27:18.580 --> 00:27:23.540 So you remember the review that Malcolm Turnbull asked Simon Birmingham for? 367 00:27:24.220 --> 00:27:29.680 That review was led by one of Australia's most respected education experts, 368 00:27:29.940 --> 00:27:30.620 Bill Loudon, 369 00:27:30.740 --> 00:27:32.280 and his findings... 370 00:27:33.180 --> 00:27:35.220 His findings infuriated people, 371 00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:38.060 especially the hard-right conservatives and cultural warriors 372 00:27:38.060 --> 00:27:39.180 within the Liberal Party, 373 00:27:39.280 --> 00:27:43.700 because what he found was the resource All of Us, specifically, 374 00:27:43.940 --> 00:27:46.780 because this was something that a lot of people had trouble with, 375 00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:48.500 the resource All of Us is a resource that is not just for people, 376 00:27:48.520 --> 00:27:48.740 but for the whole world. 377 00:27:48.740 --> 00:27:50.960 It is consistent with the aims of the Safe Schools program 378 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:54.040 and is suitable, robust, age-appropriate, 379 00:27:54.100 --> 00:27:55.020 educationally sound, 380 00:27:55.160 --> 00:27:57.760 and aligned with the Australian curriculum. 381 00:27:58.320 --> 00:28:02.440 It contains more material than would be likely to be used in most schools, 382 00:28:02.520 --> 00:28:04.340 and some material that individuals, 383 00:28:04.660 --> 00:28:07.800 individual schools and teachers would choose not to use, 384 00:28:07.940 --> 00:28:11.100 but these choices fall within the range of reasonable teacher judgement 385 00:28:11.100 --> 00:28:12.420 and school policy. 386 00:28:13.260 --> 00:28:16.940 That did not satisfy a lot of people in power, 387 00:28:16.940 --> 00:28:21.100 and this was the resource that made the front page of the Australian newspaper. 388 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:25.460 Even though the timing of that story in February 2016, 389 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:29.280 keep in mind that All of Us was launched in November 2015, 390 00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:33.180 that timing meant that All of Us couldn't have even been taught 391 00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:35.040 in one Australian classroom. 392 00:28:35.520 --> 00:28:38.400 And this is what we were having a debate over. 393 00:28:38.940 --> 00:28:41.320 This is what compelled the Australian newspaper 394 00:28:41.320 --> 00:28:45.420 to publish over 90,000 words on Safe Schools over one year. 395 00:28:45.740 --> 00:28:46.920 When they consulted with the Australian newspaper, 396 00:28:46.940 --> 00:28:48.500 they consulted with experts in that newspaper. 397 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:51.880 It was often with doctors and education academics 398 00:28:51.880 --> 00:28:55.940 who had clear and transparent affiliations 399 00:28:55.940 --> 00:28:57.840 with the Australian Christian lobby. 400 00:28:58.940 --> 00:29:00.920 And yet, across this entire period, 401 00:29:01.220 --> 00:29:04.400