Senator Pauline Hanson has revealed that this week’s senate motion against gender neutral language was doomed for failure until Liberal backbenchers voiced their support.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts put forward the motion that said inclusion can not be achieved through “distortion of biological and relational descriptors.” and called on the Morrison government to reject a series of words including chest-feeding, menstruators and non-birthing parent.
The motion called for departments within the government, and government funding agencies to stop using words include any of the listed words in their materials, any legislation, training materials or on their websites.
The motion also called for people who choose to use non-traditional pronouns to make sure they do not “dehumanise the human race and undermine gender.”, and also drew attention to a Queensland doctor who has claimed children are becoming fearful about using the words “boy” and girl”.
Appearing on Sky News, where host Rowan Dean described the motion as “fantastic stuff”, Hanson said initially the coalition was not going to allow the motion to be put forward, but it had strong support for Liberal and National backbenchers.
“The Coalition was going to vote against our notice of motion, and it was actually the backbenchers that retaliated in the room that morning, and said ‘no we’re going to support this’, and you should have heard the hoo-ha that came out Janet Rice, the Greens senator – she was not happy about the coalition voting for notice of motion.”
Hanson said the motion was important because people who change their gender identity or have a fluid gender identity are confusing Australians.
“We are fed up with change in the identity of who people are, we can all look in the mirror and see our crown jewels everyday, and we can determine if we are male or female and how we want to be, but how they go about saying this gender identity, gender fluidity it’s confusing children, it’s confusing people.” Senator Hanson said.
The One Nation leader said she’d always warned that by allowing marriage equality, it would encourage a movement lead by same-sex parents that wants to remove the meaning of words like “Mum and Dad, Gran and Grandad”.
Hanson said there was a real possibility in the future people would no longer be permitted to be addressed as ‘Grandma’ by their own grandchildren, or be allowed to refer to their spouses as husband or wife.
“What difference does it make to anyone’s lives if you carry the word, ‘Oh, that’s my mum’ ‘That’s my dad’, ‘That’s my husband’, ‘that’s my wife’ – what is the issue here? We are men, women, girls, boys, what is the problem?”
Rowan Dean responded saying the push for use of gender neutral language was part of a “neo-Marxist ideology” that pushed the idea that the family unit was wrong and should be “gotten rid of”.
Transfolk of WA raise concern over the push to compel funded organisations to avoid non-gendered language
“Aversion at the federal level to inclusive language may has wide reaching and dangerous effects. Any LGBTQIA+ organisation that receives federal funding may not use inclusive language if they wish to provide for the very communities for whom this language matters.” the group said on it’s website.
“Trans and Gender Diverse people persistently experience harassment, assault, and violence, poorer health outcomes, and poorer access to services. And yet our government feels that it is in fact trans and gender diverse people who are the threat to society. It is a motion of blind bigotry against the LGBTQIA+ population to systematically prevent changes that allow us to feel like equals in our society.
“Resistance to gender-neutral language does not change the reality that Trans and Gender Diverse people exist and live in our community. It does not preserve the innocence of children or the imagined perfect family unit. No white picket fence stands or falls by the winds of inclusive language. Language changes all the time in connection to a changing, more complex world.” Transfolk of WA posted.
“Inclusive language does what it says: include more people. It is not designed to change society. It is designed to better describe the society that already exists around us. It is a fundamental human instinct to want to feel part of your community and to feel acknowledged by your community. Inclusive language is designed to meet that need for Trans and Gender diverse people.
“Preventing inclusive language sends a clear message from this government: our words matter more than you do.” the organisation posted.
Senator Amanda Stoker shares why she felt the motion was important
On Thursday Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker appeared on the Credlin program and in a rambling answer told Dean why she’d voted in favour of the motion.
“There are those people who want to divide us into categories around identity politics and it’s toxic to our culture. It’s really really important that we are able to appreciate ‘what is within’ -shall we say, and when we structure our entire society around tip-toeing around the special attributes of one and another and require that identify some sort of special victimhood to in order to get some kind of special treatment we start going down a pretty toxic spiral in which what is meritorious and what’s on the inside doesn’t matter anymore, and that’s a terrible shame, it’s not healthy, it’s turning one Australian against another, that’s not good.” Senator Stoker responded.
“We need to make sure we don’t deny simple realities and simple facts. There are men, there are women. They are different, but they are equal, different but equal, and when they are people who have identification or want to live their life according to another means, lets not force that, lets use the good manners and civility of decent human beings to show those people the kind of respect that doesn’t deny reality.”
Rowan Dean joked that Stoker would need to “wash her mouth out” for suggesting there were men and women, to which Stoker responded “Outrageous!” while making a shocked gesture to the camera.
Prior to voting on the largely symbolic motion, Senator Jonathan Duniam read a statement from the government on the issue saying;
“The government supports the rights of individuals to make use of any pronouns or descriptors they prefer, while encouraging respect for the preferences of others.
“The government will use language in communications that is appropriate for the purpose of those communications and is respectful of its audiences.”
The motion was successfully passed with 33 senators supporting the statement and 31 voicing their opposition.
Giving their support to the motion was One Nation’s Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts; Liberals Amanda Stoker, Eric Abetz, Dean Smith, Alex Antic, Claire Chandler, Andrew Bragg, Wendy Askew, Richard Colbeck, David Fawcett, Slade Brockman, Conchetta Fierravanti-Wells, Scott Ryan, Jonathan Duniam, Sarah Henderson, Hollie Hughes, James McGrath, Alex McLachlan, Sam McMahon, Jim Molan, Matt O’Sullivan, Gerald Rennick, Anne Rushton, Paul Scarr, Zed Seselja, Ben Small and David Van, alongside Nationals Matt Canavan, Perin Davey, Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald and independent MP Jackie Lambie.
OIP Staff
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