Senator Malcolm Roberts has revealed “$26 million in public money has been set aside – in the middle of a financial crisis – specifically for gender diversity research grants within the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).”

Crucially, this $26 million grant specifically mentions transgender children, adolescents, and young adults as part of its area of focus. Does this mean that public money will be used to facilitate research into puberty blockers and surgery for minors? What about the funding of therapy that encourages children to transition into a life-long relationship with the medical industry? Has anybody asked the public if this is an appropriate use of funds?

These are great questions. The Wall Street Journal published an article The Truth About ‘Puberty Blockers’ - WSJ reminding everyone that puberty blockers are being used off-label and are the same drugs used to chemically castrate violent male sex offenders. The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne claim puberty blockers are reversible but the truth is they are being used off-label and few studies have been done. Dr Maci Bowers, a male-to-female surgeon has noted in the past that boys who take these drugs will have zero sexual function as adults.

As Senator Roberts said, “the key here is transparency.”

Given the pace at which ‘affirmation’ treatments are racing ahead without wider community consultation and alongside a growing body of criticism, including from patients who believe they were rushed into surgery they regret, there needs to be guarantees, boundaries, and safeguards put in place to ensure public money is not spent on medical research contrary to the public interest. So far, we have seen the removal of safeguards where parental rights have been usurped by government policy.

While Senator Roberts outlines the purpose for the grants, he notes that the language used is cryptic, and conveys nothing about how the money will actually be spent.

While we can hope that the bulk of this $26 million would be spent on the minority of intersex people who have very real and serious medical conditions that require complicated surgery, and the general welfare of LGBTQ+ people, it seems more likely that it will be gifted to universities and gender transition initiatives inline with the current popular social media and corporate zeitgeist.

That is why One Nation is asking, will this $26 million go towards ensuring more rigorous and stringent rules regarding the protection of children, adolescents, and young adults to make sure that only those suffering from true gender dysphoria end up on the path to transition?

Looking at the big picture, and the current trends, the Senator thinks it is highly unlikely.

The Senator will keep asking the questions and reporting back to the Australian people.

It is my view that children cannot consent to life-altering medical interventions that will almost certainly leave them sterile and prevent the natural onset of adulthood (which, incidentally, resolves most feelings of dysphoria). If we are to spend money as a nation on the medical care of gender-diverse individuals, it should be to investigate what has already happened and report back to the public the truth beneath the promotional social media trends. Parents, in particular, deserve this clarity.

We do not want to see Australia repeat the mistakes of other nations where, in the US, children as young as 12 are removing their breasts while the National Library of Medicine notes that there has been a thirteen-fold rise in procedures in adolescents. These figures end in 2020. This should shock any parent.

If we’re going to spend $26 million, we need to know what we’re buying into.

We whole-heartedly agree!

An urgent inquiry is desperately needed into gender clinic practices in Australia. Children should not be subjected to unsupervised and unaccountable medical experiments. Add your name to the growing number of Australians calling for safeguards for vulnerable children.