Victorian Senator Ralph Babet has spoken up in Federal Parliament in support of Senator Pauline Hanson’s urgency motion calling for an inquiry into the number of children suffering from gender dysphoria in Australia.

Senator Hanson’s motion was defeated in the Senate late last year, with the Australian Labor Party, the Greens and Independent senators voting against it.

Senator Babet has highlighted the importance of such an inquiry:

“We must examine the causes and possible remedies for this trend to ensure that children and their families - and their families - receive appropriate support”.

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“It is well documented that there are significant issues that arise from puberty blockers. These include but are not limited to: sterility, lack of sexual function and bone and brain development issues. Puberty blockers are becoming prescribed off-label. They were not designed for gender dysphoria, and children simply cannot consent to such radical and irreversible intervention”.

Those arguing for an inquiry point to the explosion in numbers of children being treated for gender dysphoria. As Senator Hanson has said:

“...in 2021 there were more than 2000 adolescents being treated for gender dysphoria in Australian public clinics,” …“In 2014, the figure was just 211 young people.

These are just the figures for public clinics – the report noted that many more adolescents are being treated for the condition by GPs and private clinics. The number of adolescents on puberty blockers – drugs which prevent the development of sexual characteristics during puberty – had risen from just five to 627 in the same period, while another 204 were on cross-sex hormone treatments, up from just 27 in 2014.

“If this was about almost any other condition, there would be a national outcry at such a huge increase. All I have asked is that we have an open and honest Senate inquiry into this issue, especially because of conclusive clinical evidence that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments cause long-term negative health impacts like reduced bone density, impaired fertility and impaired sexual function and libido.”

Senator Babet is to be commended for speaking up on this important issue.

Binary is calling for a royal commission into gender clinics, to protect and care for vulnerable children, and to ascertain whether the services provided at these clinics are legitimate and necessary.

A royal commission is urgently needed because currently in Australia, children are being rushed into taking puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and undergoing radical surgery to ‘transition’ - when what many really need is emotional support.

Sign Binary’s petition here, calling on the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General to call a Royal Commission into gender clinics.