Safe Schools program

2016-11-09

09 November 2016  COUNCIL  Safe Schools program

Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — Following Mr Finn on Dr Carling-Jenkins's motion, I will just make the comment that having listened to his contribution he said a number of times that this is a serious matter. On that I agree with him. On virtually everything else he said I do not agree with him, but it is a serious matter.

If I could turn to Dr Carling-Jenkins's motion, the motion starts with (1)(a), which states that this house notes that the bullying of any child for any reason is undesirable and unacceptable. The Greens wholeheartedly agree with that, and if the motion had stopped there, we would be able to support it.

Unfortunately the motion goes on to make quite a number of unsubstantiated claims and then calls on the government to withdraw the Safe Schools program from all schools, and the Greens cannot support that.

I will go to the points that are made in Dr Carling-Jenkins's motion. Point (b) states:

the Safe Schools program has been found to be an ideologically driven indoctrination program, designed to promote a contested and controversial form of gender theory, rather than being the anti-bullying program it has been promoted as …

There is no evidence of that. That is just an assertion; that is just a claim made by Dr Carling-Jenkins, and it is completely false. I am very familiar with the Safe Schools material. I have looked through it all, and I find no evidence of that. In fact I agree with the points made many times by Ms Shing in her contribution on this program that it is a program that is well overdue in our schools. As Ms Shing said, if it had been in place many years before it would have saved a lot of heartache and trouble for students who were and still are subject to bullying and discrimination in schools due to being same-sex attracted or gender diverse young people.

Dr Carling-Jenkins's motion goes on to say at point (c):

Victorian parents have not been consulted prior to the rollout of the Safe Schools program within schools …

They are being consulted as it is being rolled out in schools.

Point (d) states:

Victorian parents are concerned about the age-appropriateness of the content being presented by the Safe Schools program to their children …

Again, that is just an assertion and a claim being made in this motion. I will concede that a small number of parents might be concerned, but I would say the majority of parents are supportive of this program, and certainly parents who I have spoken to are supportive of it.

Point (e) states:

Victorian parents of children with disabilities feel the Safe Schools program does not take their children's needs into account …

I really do not understand that point. How is that the case? The Safe Schools program takes into account the needs of all students, and it is about raising the awareness of all students about issues that face students in schools, as I was saying in my contribution on our bill, the Equal Opportunity Amendment (Equality for Students) Bill 2016. Removing provisions within the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 that make it possible for religious schools to discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation or their gender identity is contrary to the Safe Schools program.

Point (f) states:

there is widespread public awareness that the Safe Schools Coalition Victoria has social reengineering as one of its higher purposes …

Again, that is just a wild claim.

Point (g) states:

government schools should be free of any form of radical indoctrination …

I do agree with that point. I do not believe the Safe Schools program is that. I do believe in the actual point, on principle, but the Safe Schools program is not that.

The second part of the motion calls on the government to:

withdraw the program immediately from all schools …

The Greens would not support that. We believe it should be rolled out to all schools. The motion also calls on the government to:

conduct a review, which takes into account the views of parents into the incidence and prevention of bullying in schools.

There are already a lot of programs about bullying in schools in addition to the Safe Schools program, but there has already been a review conducted into the Safe Schools program by Emeritus Professor William Loudon at the University of Western Australia, which is my alma mater, I might add. It is worth putting on the record what Professor Loudon found. While recommending some relatively small changes, he found that:

1.     Five hundred and fifteen schools have become members of the Safe Schools Coalition … Membership does not imply an obligation to use … resources. The material provided encourages schools to develop their own plan for choosing among and implementing the resources.

2.     Many member schools have had an introductory meeting or training session for staff; a few have had training about the key teaching and learning resource All of Us; and no school is known to have implemented the whole eight-lesson program.

3.     The four official guides are consistent with the aims of the program and are appropriate for use in schools (that is, Safe Schools Do Better, Guide to Kick Starting Your Safe School, Guide to Hosting Inclusive School Formals, and Guide to Supporting a Student to Affirm or Transition Gender Identity at School).

4.     The three official posters are suitable for display, especially in secondary schools. Display in primary schools would be appropriate, but the posters rely on terms and concepts that may not be familiar to primary school-aged students. (that is, Change is Coming, Discrimination Free Zone, What Are Your Plans for IDAHOT).

5.     The resource All of Us is consistent with the aims of the program, is suitable, robust, age appropriate, educationally sound and aligned with the Australian curriculum. It contains more material than would be likely to be used in most schools, and some material that individual schools and teachers would choose not to use. These choices fall within the range of reasonable teacher judgement and school policy —

et cetera.

We have had a full review into the Safe Schools program, and it found that the program is educationally sound and appropriate. Some small changes were made, but they were relatively minor. It is worth saying of course that the Safe Schools program was established in Victoria in 2010. It is free to all schools, and at May this year 260 government, Catholic and independent schools had signed up for it. That is 260 government, Catholic and independent schools that have signed up to the coalition. All government secondary schools are required to be members by the end of 2018.

According to the Safe Schools Coalition Victoria website:

Safe Schools Coalition member schools are able to:

request tailored professional development for some or all school staff on inclusive practices and creating supportive environments for transgender diverse young people;

request assistance in setting up and developing student-led activities …

request guidance on creating supportive and inclusive school policies;

request guidance on inclusive practice in all teaching and learning areas, including sexuality education and advising schools on how to engage and include same-sex families;

request support in the process of affirming the gender identity of transgender or gender diverse students;

access resources to equip staff and students with skills, practical ideas and greater confidence to lead positive change.

All of these are positive developments in our schools and will engender a more understanding awareness by students of the diversity amongst themselves. We know from research that up to 10 per cent of students may be same-sex attracted, 4 per cent of students are gender diverse or transgender and up to 1.7 per cent of students are intersex. Also we know that school is the place where most homophobic and transphobic bullying takes place, with 75 per cent of those students experiencing discrimination, with 80 per cent of that happening at school, and 80 per cent of those students feeling they are not supported by their school. So clearly there is a need for the Safe Schools program. The Greens are supportive of the program and want to see it widely rolled out and so will be unable to support this motion.