Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Rainbow libraries toolkit

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:39): (1531) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Equality. Minister, Daniel Andrews once declared Victoria the most progressive state in the nation, but like much of the newspeak terminology of the Ministry of Truth, progression in Victoria has proven to be radical regression – a lack of community consultation, criminals rorting our taxes for industrial construction sites and our children struggling with mental health, with delays in learning to read. While this is a Labor government that loves to put on their hard hats and roll out bulldozers to demolish the longstanding values, principles and norms that our society is built upon, this Labor government has executed a coordinated agenda to confuse the next generation. Here are some examples. In 2014 the Andrews Labor government introduced and expanded the Safe Schools program created by the LGBTQI activist. It was not a typical sex ed program that focused on explaining human bodies and reproduction. No, this was a fully-fledged political campaign for children, promoting ideas like sexual pleasure and preferences, gender fluidity, identity and transition, and in some material children were encouraged to keep sexual secrets with adults.

Then in 2020 the government passed the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021. While we all agree that harmful practices against the LGBTQI+ community must be stopped, this legislation was an overreach. It strips individuals of their right to consent to private practices, such as counselling or prayer, and forces only gender-affirmation care, forcing parents, medical and professional counsellors from appropriately offering other reasons for personal distress, confusion and social isolation, and this can prevent diagnosis of other causes. This act now enforces penalties that are draconian in scope, including jail sentences of up to 10 years. In this lawless state of Victoria you could face a lighter sentence for violent crimes if you indeed received jail time at all.

Today we debated the government’s latest initiative, the rainbows libraries toolkit, which encourages public libraries to adopt inclusive language, inquire about visitors’ preferred pronouns and promote gender-diverse literature. I extend my support to Bev McArthur’s petition and the community’s petition, which has garnered the signatures of nearly 5000 Victorians who oppose this latest instalment in the government’s social agenda. I have received an overwhelming number of concerns from my constituents calling for the program to be withdrawn from our libraries. In this program children as young as five years old will be quizzed by library staff on their preferred pronouns. At this stage children are just learning to recognise letters and starting to speak basic sentences. Their intellectual capacity is in its infancy, and they simply do not have the ability to grasp political ideological concepts, nor do they understand the life-transforming decisions that asking them about their gender identity is going to cause. It is not education – (Time expired)