Labor split on Safe Schools future

The future of the Safe Schools program is up in the air with Labor leaders split on the program.

The future of the Safe Schools program is up in the air with Labor leaders split on the program and NSW Labor leader Luke Foley ruling out supporting its reintroduction.

The NSW Opposition Leader has rejected a return of the sexual and gender diversity program under a NSW Labor government, arguing that it does little to stop bullying.

“I want to be clear, the Safe Schools program will not return,” Mr Foley told The Daily Telegraph in Sydney.

“Schools have a role to stop bullying — but what I won’t have is some theory that comes from a university sociology course doing it. That’s not helping to stop bullying.”

The Safe Schools program is billed by its proponents as an anti-bullying tool that aims to boost a sense of inclusiveness at school for same-sex attracted, ­intersex and gender-diverse ­students. It has been criticised for introducing radical gender ­theory into classrooms, while others have targeted its architects for promoting sexual and gender diversity rather than stamping out bullying.

Federal funding for the anti-homophobia program ended in October, leaving state governments responsible for funding it if they wanted it to continue or to draft their own programs.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes scrapped the program in April along with Tasmania’s Hodgman government, with both states replacing it with a broader anti-bullying program.

Labor states have shown a willingness to continue funding the Safe Schools program, including South Australia and the ACT, and Victoria where the ­Andrews government committed to fully funding its own version of the program.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Paluszczuk has ruled out funding the program, leaving schools who want to take part to fund their involvement through their own finances.

The Victorian opposition has seized on Mr Foley’s comments to question Premier Daniel ­Andrews’s support for the program that is expected to become an issue at next year’s state election. “NSW Labor has acknowledged that Safe Schools is damaging and ideological and declared it has no place in schools. But in Daniel Andrews’s Victoria, Safe Schools is compulsory in all state secondary schools,” opposition education spokesman Tim Smith said.

“(They) have acknowledged what Daniel Andrews refuses to: that the Safe Schools program must be ‘gone for good’.”

Mr Smith said he would ­replace the program with a broader anti-bullying program, as NSW has done.

Despite its removal in NSW, elements of the program have persisted. Last week, members of parent-run advocacy group You’re Teaching Our Children What? expressed concerns that links to the program were still available on the NSW Teachers Federation website.

Mr Stokes was forced to intervene in August when a guide on “sexuality and sexual health orientation” for Year 1 to 10 was posted on the NSW Education Standards Authority website.