By Natassia Chrysanthos
The majority of Coalition senators have swung in behind One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s bid for a fresh parliamentary inquiry into medical treatments for transgender children, less than a week after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton cautioned his MPs to steer clear of culture wars before the federal election.
Eighteen Coalition senators – including frontbenchers Bridget McKenzie, Michaelia Cash and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and MPs Alex Antic and Matt Canavan – on Monday voted for Hanson’s motion to launch an inquiry into “experimental child gender treatments” and the need for a ban on gender-related medical interventions for children under 18.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Three Coalition senators – Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Richard Colbeck – joined with Labor, Greens and independent senators to defeat the motion.
While Monday’s vote failed, it drags the Coalition into culture wars on trans issues and risks making senators appear defiant of Dutton, who last week told his party room MPs needed to campaign on the cost of living and could not be distracted by anything else, according to reports in this masthead.
It also highlights Dutton’s challenge in clawing back socially progressive former Liberal seats, now held by teal independents, where voters have been unimpressed by debate targeting transgender children.
A review of medical treatment for transgender children is already under way in Australia with bipartisan support.
Coalition senators Matt Canavan, Bridget McKenzie, Michaelia Cash, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Alex Antic voted for Pauline Hanson’s bill on an inquiry into “experimental child gender treatments”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
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.
Butler commissioned the review after the Queensland government announced it would pause the prescription of gender transition drugs for young people. “These issues should be nationally consistent, and in my view, should be driven by the pre-eminent authority,” Butler said.
Both Dutton and opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston backed Butler’s review last month, with Ruston saying that young people’s health “should be informed by empirical evidence and by our health experts”.
Ruston did not partake in Monday afternoon’s vote, nor did finance spokeswoman Jane Hume, who is a leading moderate voice in the party.
But the majority of their Senate colleagues voted in favour of Hanson’s push for an additional inquiry, which would have been dictated by the One Nation leader’s terms.
Hanson’s terms of reference said she wanted to probe the failures of Australia’s medical establishment, the suppression of dissenting scientific voices, the role of activist groups shaping policy and the need for a national ban on medical interventions for people under 18.
According to reports in this masthead, Dutton last Tuesday told shadow ministers to stay focused on their portfolios, not their personal agendas.
Dutton’s memo to MPs – reminiscent of his move last year to shut down an abortion debate after it damaged the Coalition at the Queensland election – follows attempts by some conservatives to reignite political debates over transgender rights.
They included Antic, who told colleagues he was concerned about the government’s review of trans healthcare and thought the Coalition should do its own review.
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