Australia: Prime Minister orders review of ‘Safe Schools’ LGBTI programme

Feb 23, 2016 by Andrew Symes

by Matthew Knott and Judith Ireland, Sydney Morning Herald.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ordered a review into a controversial school education program aimed at promoting acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBTI) students.

The move was immediately hailed by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) as a win against “rainbow ideology,” while Labor and the teacher’s union slammed Mr Turnbull for buckling to the conservative wing of the Liberal Party.

The Safe Schools teaching manual, set up by Labor but launched by the Coalition in 2014, has been under fire in recent weeks from conservative politicians, the ACL and News Corp newspapers.

An independent review announced on Tuesday will advise Education Minister Simon Birmingham on whether the program’s material is “age appropriate” by mid-March.

The issue dominated discussion in Tuesday’s behind-closed-doors meeting of Coalition MPs and senators.

In the meeting, Liberal senator Cory Bernardi called for the $8 million program to be defunded because he was concerned it was being used to “indoctrinate children into a Marxist agenda of cultural relativism”.

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi told the partyroom Safe Schools may “indoctrinate kids with Marxist cultural relativism”.

Senator Bernardi added he believed the program was prematurely sexualising children…

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See also: The real agenda behind the ‘Safe Schools Coalition’, by Bill Muehlenberg