Western Australian Liberal MP Andrew Hastie is adamant that the defence force should change its policy which allows gender reassignment surgery for transgender service personnel.

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The conservative MP disagrees with Defence Minister Marise Payne and Defence Personnel Minister Dan Tehan who have defended the funding.

The member for Canning has stepped up his campaign for a policy change, arguing that the armed forces are creating an incentive for people to undergo gender reassignment surgery by paying for the operation.

He also says he’s concerned about people with gender dysphoria “getting through” the army, navy and air forces recruitment processes.

Hastie made his most recent comments while chatting to Lyle Shelton, the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, on his Voice for Values podcast.

“I have very deep reservations about the military being a test tube for social engineering and indeed being a place which incentivises sex change operations free of charge” Hastie said.

Hastie recently revealed he quit his career in the SAS because he was concerned that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was involved in “social engineering”.

The MP said proving gender reassignment surgery to serving personnel could undermine Australia’s war fighting capabilities.

“The bottom line for the ADF is war fighting.” Hastie told Shelton, “Its primary mission is to win our wars and pursue our national objectives using lethal force.

“In order to have that you have to be very selective about who you enlist. We have rigorous standards for people at entry for army, navy and air force, and it’s troubling that people are getting through.”

Hastie said people experiencing gender dysphoria were real people, made of flesh and blood, who needed counselling and help.

The MP said the armed forces were knocking back people who had rugby injuries, mild allergies and athletes who had previously had cancer, and questioned why the recruitment processes were identifying these conditions but not detecting people who may be transgender.

Asked if he’d like to see a ban on transgender people serving in the military, similar to recent moves taken in the USA, Hastie said Australia should think “long and hard” about the issue.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I certainly want to raise the question.” Hastie said.

Hastie said his experience of serving in the military was that there had been a drop in morale while the Labor government was in power, and that decisions made because of “political correctness” were to blame.

“A man is a man and a woman is a woman” the MP said, arguing that military effectiveness is based on facts.

OIP Staff

24-10-17 An earlier version of this article suggested that the level of support given to people within the defence forces is greater than that given to people in the general public under Medicare. This has been disputed. OUTinPerth has removed the paragraph from the story while additional fact checking is undertaken.