The mother of a teenager experiencing gender dysphoria has taken legal action against the Queensland government’s pause on accepting new patients for treatment using puberty blockers and cross sex hormones.
For legal reasons the woman’s name is not being made public, but she has obtained an order from the state’s Supreme Court that orders the state’s Director-General of Health to prove a statement of reasons for the freeze.
The Miles Labor government conducted a review of the gender treatment services for youth in 2024 and it produced a series of recommendations.
When the Crisafulli government came to power in 2025 they rejected all of the report’s recommendations and ordered a new review into the healthcare of transgender youth. Health Minister Tim Nicholls ruled that existing patients could continue to be treated and access medication, but not new patients could be accepted.
The ban on taking new patients has no end date but is due to be reviewed every 12 months Former Victorian Chief Psychiatrist Ruth Vine has been appointed to conduct the new review which is expected to be delivered at the end of November.
The court heard that the Director-General had failed to respond to letters written to him by the mother, and he’s been ordered to respond and pay her legal costs by 8th April.
The concerned mother shared that she had first written to the bureaucrat in early February, but he ignored the request and did not respond in the required timeframe laid out in the Judicial Review Act.
Speaking to the ABC the parent said she was appalled by the government’s response.
“The whole process has been disrespectful to me, to my daughter, and to the community that’s been affected by his decision,” she said.
“This application is hopefully just the first step in the battle. Once we get the statement of reasons my legal team will give me advice about whether I can challenge his decision and get his directive set aside.”
A spokesperson for the Director-General told the ABC that the decision had been made in the context of “emerging evidence contesting the benefits and safety of the use of Stage 1 and Stage 2 hormone treatments for children with gender dysphoria”.
