Recently, the biggest opposition party (the neoliberal party) in my home state announced that, as part of their education
policy for the coming election, they wanted to make some changes –
specifically, they want to allow
LGBTIQ kids to be bullied,
and they want to instil their version of “Australian values”.
Of course, they didn’t phrase it that way –
they referred to “a broader anti-bullying programme”, for instance.
Well, bullying based on sexuality and gender
identity is a part of that broader view of bullying (and there are other targets), and the evidence
shows
that Safe
Schools
was what was needed
to manage that sub-set of bullying. Cutting that back will, in addition to harming
its targets,
limit the ability of parents to do their
job of raising LGBTIQ children (from
a party which, as I understand it, thinks parents should have more say?), directly
contradict the principle within the “Four Freedoms” set out by the USA’s
32nd President, Franklin
D Roosevelt of “Freedom from Fear”, as well as contravening the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (Articles
1, 2, 3, 16, 25 and especially 26, which guarantees the right to education that
bullying of LGBTIQ children restricts), and will harm the economy
(from a party which claims to be good at
economic management) by denying young LGBTIQ people the opportunity to
develop and contribute their full skills to the economy – but I suppose that
doesn’t stack up against the emotional discomfort of a few conservatives in the
neoliberal party who are unable to cope with the fact
of gender identity covering more than the old, thoroughly discredited two
polarities view.
This policy can – ad is, by me – viewed as
getting cheap votes from the fearful, the uninformed (or misinformed), and the hateful - at the expense of belittling
and attacking a relatively small minority of human beings, and those who care
about them (including parents and other
family, friends, students, peers, and teachers).
It is ironic that this is happening in the
party that decriminalised homosexuality in Victoria in the 1980s, and which was
supportive (with a modicum of education,
which was offered to all sides) of reforms of Victoria’s human rights laws
in 2000 to support gender diverse people – which, of course, was before John
Howard tore any connection to Menzies out from the heart and soul of that
party.
The descent of the neoliberal party since
then has been shown by the malicious
, damaging
and harmful
lies
at a Federal level during the recent postal survey on Equal
Marriage.
However, there were also those
in the neoliberal party (and churches) who, during that debate, showed that there is still some of
Menzies’ “small l” liberalism left– for example, the originator
of the Bill which was ultimately passed.
So the question needs to be asked: who is
behind this move at a state level? Perhaps that question can be more broadly
phrased, “who is in charge of the Victorian neoliberal party?” – which is a
topic that I recently examined
at a Commonwealth level.
In this state level instance, has this
decision been taken by (amoral?)
political advisors, the aforementioned conservatives, the neoliberal party more
generally, or the neoliberal party leadership?
In any event, the policy shows exactly the
same short-sightedness of attacking
the South Sudanese community over alleged youth gang violence, which pushed
Victoria backwards into racism, and the now several decades long, racist
xenophobia against asylum seekers at a Federal level (I do not and never have believed that it is about maritime safety –
Italy’s response to recent, similar events shows how a safety-focused response
truly looks) which accelerated the
politics of fear in this nation: this current neoliberal party policy
proposal would push Victoria backwards into homophobia and transphobia – it would
divide and harm our society. To be clear: the harm is not only to LGBTIQ people
and those who care about them, it is also to the society that is actively choosing to manifest that hate.
Choosing actively, but, thanks to what I consider to be political and media
manipulation, not deliberately (perhaps a better word is deliberatively) choosing …
So … finally, in view of all that: what is
their version of Australian
values?