Rita Panahi: Australia is laughing at Victoria and that’s unacceptable
Hormone blockers for transgender 10-year-olds, a paramedic-bashing thug walking free again and the push for an ugly nondescript road to be heritage listed — welcome to Victoria, Australia’s laughing stock, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rita Panahi. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Socialist Republic of Victoria has become the butt of jokes among uncharitable types in the northern states who never miss an opportunity to poke fun at our unique ways.
As a proud Victorian, I defend Melbourne and the Garden State against their jibes, but even I have to admit that we contribute a disproportionate amount of idiocy to the nation.
Here are three examples of hard-to-defend “only in Victoria” shenanigans from just the past 48 hours.
Hormone blockers and mastectomies for children: Australia’s biggest gender clinic, operating from the Royal Children’s Hospital, was the hot topic of discussion on Sydney and Brisbane radio on Monday after RCH chief executive John Stanway and chairman Rob Knowles defended the controversial clinic’s practices. The clinic has come under criticism from a number of medical experts, both locally and internationally, for giving children as young as 10 puberty blocker drugs and pushing for a change in guidelines to allow double mastectomies on girls under 17 who identify as boys.
Understandably, there is some disquiet about pumping confused children too young to watch The Joker full of powerful hormones and subjecting them to life-changing medical procedures that they may regret in a few years. Professor of paediatrics John Whitehall is among a growing number of professionals questioning such treatments.
Prof Whitehall called for a parliamentary inquiry into the treatment of young people who identify as trans late last year.
In less than a week he had more than 200 doctors including professors, paediatricians and psychiatrists sign a petition backing the move.
The Australian’s Bernard Lane is one of the few journalists who has reported the facts and sought clarification on basic data the gender clinic has refused to release.
What we do know is business is booming with referrals jumping by about 1500 per cent in the past seven years.
Clinic head Michelle Telfer told the mental health royal commission that given “the politicisation of gender diversity and of (trans) child and adolescent healthcare in particular — as seen with the Safe Schools (program) nationally and the marriage equality debate — clinicians and the (trans) community share concerns of funding sustainability with changes in governments.”
Heritage listed lunacy: Come to Victoria and marvel at our architecture, breathtaking scenery from mountain ranges to the Great Ocean Road and don’t forget to take a selfie at, er, a nondescript eight-lane freeway opened in 1977.
On Monday Heritage Victoria backed the Andrews Government’s application to have the Eastern Freeway heritage listed. This is not an April Fools joke.
Heritage Victoria executive director Steven Avery wrote the Eastern Freeway deserved heritage listing due to its “distinctive concrete road overpasses” and “naturalistic landscape setting, exposed escarpments and cuttings, with mortared infill rockwork, a broad central grassed median”. You could not make this stuff up.
Open season on first responders: To overcome sentencing that had become out of touch with community expectations, the Victorian government introduced mandatory minimum terms for certain crimes, including a six-month minimum for intentionally causing serious injury to an emergency worker. But there are loopholes so big that you could drive an ambulance through them.
On Monday a thug who bashed a female paramedic escaped a jail term (again) and was instead put on an 18-month compulsory treatment order.
James Haberfield assaulted two paramedics after bingeing on “a cornucopia” of drugs at a music festival. He initially escaped a jail term due to the magistrate determining his “clinically depressed state” and “autism spectrum traits” would make it difficult for him in jail.
An appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions brought the matter before the courts again for the same result.
Meanwhile, his victim Monica, who was punched in the face and put into a chokehold, spoke about the continued “devastating impact” the attack has had on her life. The “soft justice” meted out to violent criminals in Victoria has been noted far and wide.
It’s not just Victorians who are bewildered by a justice system that prioritises the interests of the offender over the interests of the victim and the wider community.
— Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist.