Queensland’s Crisafulli government has announced it will not be deterred by a Supreme Court decision handed down earlier today that found it had acted unlawfully when implementing a ban on youth experiencing gender dysphoria being treated with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
The court found that the government’s ban that was introduced earlier this year was unlawful because they had failed to conduct a proper consultation prior to implementing their policy. In court it was revealed that the only meeting was a shirt discussion that occurred on the online app Teams, which was held at the same time that Minister Tim Nicholls was announcing the decision.
Within an hour of the judgement being handed down the Health Minister declared the government would be looking at all its options to keep the ban in place, including introducing legislation to enforce the change.
“I am satisfied that it is in the public interest that I consider giving a written ministerial direction to hospital and health services,” he said.
“With immediate effect, I will be considering the implications of doing so over the next little period of time.” Minister Nicholls said.
The Minister said the court ruling was only about the way they’d gone about their implementation of the ban, not their motivation behind it.
“The Supreme Court was concerned with the treatment, with the circumstances of making the directive, not whether a pause on stage one treatment or stage two treatment was appropriate,” he said.
“The government’s position remains unchanged.” he said.
Since implementing the ban the government has also commissioned a review of the current treatment procedures for transgender youth which is expected to be handed down in November. The Queensland government’s review is separate to a national review which is also underway.
Nicholls has also brushed off calls for his resignation. Last week Premier David Crisafulli told the media that they were expecting to win the case, and defended the government’s approach.
