It was an emotionally-charged end to last night’s Q&A, when queer student Carter Smith challenged the panel over the roll back of the Safe Schools program.
“Kids and students need to be taught that it is okay not to fit into the accepted norm early, yet these changes and attacks on the Safe schools program are trying to take that away,” he said.
Smith went on to ask for a commitment from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
“I’ve always been proud to see Mr Andrews standing up for the LGBTI community and I would like to know; will he continue this fight, even in the face of backlash and what will he do to ensure that people are educated on these issues and also that kids are kept safe?”
Andrews, who earlier in the evening questioned the message a same-sex marriage plebiscite would send to young people, promised to continue to fight.
“This program works, it saves lives,” he said.
“It’s here to stay. If the federal government wants to tinker with it and compromise it we will fund it fully and deliver it properly in every government secondary school across our state, no questions asked.”
“Until we’ve got every school running this program and every school is a safe place where everyone gets treated equally and where who you are is good enough. No more, no less. You’re valued, respected, you’re safe.”
Josh Frydenberg jumped in to defend his government’s actions in reducing the program.
Top Comments
“Politicians are using young, innocent, in pain children as political bullets, that is unacceptable.”
Is Dan Andrews planning on anymore photo opps at the zoo with refugee kids scheduled for return to offshore detention?
Why is any person's identity defined by their sexuality? Carter Smith is a young man who happens to be homosexual. Does he write on his job applications, 'Hello, my name is Queer Carter Smith'? Whilst schoolchildren shouldn't be bullying other students, school yard violence is on the rise and not just towards LGBTI students. Daniel Andrews made the grandiose statement that the Safe Schools Programme saves lives. Does he have the evidence to back this claim?
Sexuality is a huge part of a person's identity. Imagine having to conceal a large part of yourself for years of schooling because the other kids might make fun of you. Imagine thinking there must be something wrong with you because the other kids all said being homosexual was "weird" and "gross". That affects a person, especially when they're young.