RMIT ABC Fact Check this week debunked the claim by Binary Australia that Victorian kids could transition without parental consent. Binary Australia is run by Kirralie Smith, previously an anti-same-sex marriage activist. Before that, a prominent Islamophobist.
Binary made the claim in a flyer aimed at voters ahead of the Victorian election later this month. It stated that the Andrews government allowed school kids access to gender-affirming medical treatment without parental consent.
The organisation also claims on its website that “Dan Andrews can transition your child without your knowledge or consent.”
However, RMIT ABC Fact Check found that the Victorian government cannot grant a student permission to access medical treatments for gender dysphoria. Nor can Victorian schools.
Children can only access the treatment via a medical professional with permission from parents or carers. Alternatively, in the absence of parental consent, a judge may approve the treatment via a court order.
Under the Andrews Labor government, trans and gender-diverse students do receive support to express their identity through uniforms and pronouns. Big difference between that and secret transitions.
Binary Australia
Kirralie Smith of Binary Australia is no stranger to either politics or controversy. She first came to public attention as a Senate candidate for the far-right Australian Liberty Alliance, a political offshoot of the Islamophobic Q Society. Smith failed to gain election, winning just 3,113 votes.
In February 2017, the Q Society held a fund-raising dinner with has-been political cartoonist Larry Pickering as guest speaker. Pickering managed to squeeze Islamophobia and homophobia into three short sentences.
“I can’t stand Muslims. If they are in the same street as me, I start shaking. They are not all bad. They do chuck pillow-biters off buildings.”
Soon after, Kirralie Smith jumped ship from the Liberty Alliance to Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives. And she became a prominent campaigner against marriage equality under the banner of Marriage Alliance. When the NO campaign lost the marriage equality battle, she transitioned Marriage Alliance into the anti-trans Binary Australia.
Selected for the unwinnable third spot on the Australian Conservatives NSW Senate ticket in 2019, Smith later withdrew from the race. Probably for the best. The first and second spots also proved unwinnable, and Cory Bernardi later quit the Senate and deregistered the party.
But watch out — Smith previously claimed drag was corrupting Xmas — it’s almost time to beat that tired drum again.
I ran into Kirralie Smith during the Same Sex Marriage vote campaign.
A most unpleasant moment.