This article was originally published by QNews. You can find the original article here.
Eighteen Coalition senators have thrown their support behind One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s call for a parliamentary inquiry into the “need for a national ban” on medical treatments for transgender children.
In the Senate on Monday, Pauline Hanson put forward her ultimately unsuccessful motion for the parliamentary inquiry.
Hanson moved for a Senate committee to examine “the human cost of experimental child gender treatments” and “the need for a national ban on gender-related medical interventions for individuals under the age of 18.”
Three Coalition senators – Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Richard Colbeck – joined with Labor, Greens and independents to defeat Hanson’s motion.
But eighteen Coalition MPs – including frontbenchers Bridget McKenzie, Michaelia Cash (pictured above) and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and MPs Alex Antic and Matt Canavan – voted in favour.
But an independent, national review of medical treatment for transgender children is already underway with bipartisan support.
Health Minister Mark Butler last month asked Australia’s peak medical research body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, to develop national guidelines for medical treatment, including puberty blockers.
He called the review as the Queensland government blocked access to hormone therapies for trans youth under 18.
Butler said at the time “these issues should be nationally consistent, and in my view, driven by the pre-eminent authority.”
Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston backed the review at the time, agreeing adolescent health “should be informed by empirical evidence and by our health experts”.
‘Anyone who doesn’t accept that is simply playing politics’
Following the Senate vote yesterday, Mark Butler said the Coalition is “clearly deeply divided on this”.
“I thought that Peter Dutton, as the leader of the Coalition, made it clear that he didn’t want division and politics played on this,” he said.
“I asked the NHMRC… to conduct a review and issue new clinical guidelines for the treatment of trans and gender diverse children and teenagers.
“That’s their statutory charter set out in their legislation. They’ve got decades of experience in this matter. They are undoubtedly the preeminent authority to issue clinical guidelines in this area.
“Anyone who doesn’t accept that is simply playing politics with the lives and the health, particularly the mental health, of some of Australia’s most vulnerable young people.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reported last week that Coalition leader Peter Dutton privately read the riot act to shadow ministers, instructing them to focus on the cost of living, instead of “culture wars”.
However last week, Dutton himself was on Sky News suggesting his support for a national “debate” around trans issues, including gender-affirming care and the inclusion of trans athletes in sport.
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