Queensland has long been seen as one of the most conservative parts of Australia, often likened to Texas for our American friends. This has been on full display this week both in terms of the actions of the Queensland government in terms of gender affirming care bans for trans kids but also the contrast with events in Victoria where the first Treaty with first nations people past parliament. One state is looking towards progress and trying to reach out to minorities while the other plays politics with health care and to maintain right wing supports. So, let’s take a closure investigate what happened this week and why it matters.
Supreme Court of Queensland’s decisions
Back in January the Queensland Health director-general David Rosengren issued a directive preventing public health services from providing gender affirming care to new patients under 18 suffering from Gender Dysphoria. The directive specifically targeted the trans community since puberty blocks and hormone treatment could still be prescribed for other conditions like precocious puberty that could impact Cis kids it is therefore like bans we have seen implemented in the States and UK. The freeze would remain in place until the government’s independent review could be effectively dissected, and any recommendations implemented. The additional concern here is that the newly elected liberal government whose members where very vocal in their opposition to the ID reforms passed in 2023 with some classic Anti-trans rhetoric entered into the official record will have framed the review to provide a clear outcome. Especially with the appointment of ‘experts’ with no experience in gender affirming care or gender dysphoria that it will ignore the voices of the Trans community and other experienced healthcare professionals. The fear is that it will be like the Cass review, the heavily biased and scientifically flawed review published in the UK which has been heavily criticised by Australian exports but has been used to justify gender affirming care bans in the UK and US. At the time the action was criticised by the Federal Government which launched its own review through the National Health and Medical Research Council an independent body with an established process dictated by the NHMRC Act for choosing committee members fee of political interference. However, the new official guidelines will not be published until 2028 with an interim advice on puberty blockers to be released in 2026
That brings us to last week’s supreme court decision as a mother of trans teenager took the Queensland government’s freeze on care to court fighting for the right of her child to freely access health care. The case was concerned was “concerned solely with the legal requirements” of the decision and whether the government followed the proper process to lawfully enact such a ban, based on this Justice Peter Callaghan deemed the freeze on gender affirming care unlawful. A major component on this was that the government did not conduct the proper consultation with Queensland’s Hospital and health services. In fact, all that took place was a 22-minute teams meeting which occurred at the time the announcement. This highlights the nature of the decision process and the fact that it was done rashly without seeking the appropriate level of input. While the case did not deal with the merit of such a ban Callaghan also noted that Director Generals decisions had also taken account of ‘irrelevant factors’ and been under ‘ministerial direction’. His ruling in favour of the mother highlighted that proper legal process was not followed and the decision was influenced by political interference by the liberal government. I wish that this was the end of it and these teenagers could access health carefree from such political interference, but the liberals were obviously not willing to give up.
Reinstating the ban
Less than 24 hours after the court decision the Health Minister Tim Nicholls reinstated the ban using a ministerial directive which he noted did not require the same level of consultation and was more discretionary. Personally, I think the optics for this is bad for a political party to have the ban considered unlawful due to incorrect process suggest either corruption or incompetence while than actively pursuing the ban in a way that avoids the need from consulting with the community and exports. Not to mention the fact that there is now increasing coverage of heart broken and angry parents trying to fight for their kids attacking the government. It might help sure up the right-wing support, but it is hurting the party with other voters, considering this is only their first time in power after spending a long time in opposition they may be impacting their prospects going forward. Of course added to this potential fallout is that new directive could still face legal challenges. One avenue potentially open is that Ministerial directives need to be done in the public interest so therefore if challenged the government would have to prove that there was a risk or threat to the community. The likelihood is that any court battle will likely take place after the report from the review is handed down at the end of this month. Regardless of any potential legal preceding’s the whole thing has sparked snap protest, a new round of petitions and an increased level of scrutiny so the next round of polls in Queensland will be interesting.
Protesters outside Tim Nicholls Office the day after supreme court decision
Frist Nations Treaty passed in Victoria
While the Queensland government seem to be focused on punching down on one minority Victoria is making progress with another. On Thursday the first ever treaty with Indigenous Australians passed the upper house and now just needs the assent of the governor before formally being signed into law. The main element of the treaty establishes a First Peoples’ representative and deliberative body, to be known as Gellung Warl. The decision-making part of the Gellung Warl is a self-determined democratically elected First Nations Assembly which will advise the Victorian parliament on the impact of proposed legislation and report on the disadvantage present in indigenous communities across the State. The body will also be made up of the Nyerna Yoorrook Telkuna, focused on truth telling around historical events and Nginma Ngainga Wara which will be responsible for evaluating the states progress for achieving better outcomes for first nations people. The landmark legislation was meet with celebrations and tears from indigenous representative on Thursday and there is a clear hope that it will lead other States to follow suit. New South Wales and South Australia are currently working towards a treaty while Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania have all scraped plans for a treaty.
In Victoria it’s clear there is still a desire to scrap the treaty the liberal party has criticised the treaty as it believes that the treaty creates another level of government and have clearly stated that if elected next year will scrap the treaty within their first 100 days. Instead, they would create a new government department to try and facilitate addressing disadvantage. This will not sit well with indigenous communities as such a body would be meet with scepticism due to the historical injustices conducted by government departments with such mandates. The Liberals have clearly put this as a priority if elected which I think is a questionable move as if we look at the ‘Voice’ referendum most of inner city Melbourne voted in favour and are generally highly progressive, considering the resent polling it seems like a highly divisive tactic the follows the parties ongoing desire for culture wars, a strategy which did not work federally this year. However, we will have to wait and see as we get closer to the election, even if they decide to back away from these statements most minorities are already concerned about the liberal brand.
If anyone needed help understanding the different states in Aus these two issues help demonstrate the long-standing political spectrum between the major southern states (Vic, NSW and SA) and those in the North which have always seem that little bit behind when it comes to social progress and acceptance.
