Liberal Senator Dean Smith calls Morrison’s gender whisperer comments “unfortunate”
Image: Dean Smith. Image: Facebook.
West Australian Senator Dean Smith has called Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s widely criticised ‘gender whisperers’ comments “unfortunate and unnecessary”.
Smith made the remarks at Curtin University’s Australian Ally Conference last week, Out in Perth reported.
He was joined on a panel by Labor Senator Louise Pratt, just.equal’s Rodney Croome, and WA Greens MLC Alison Xamon.
This was the second year of the Ally conference, which was held under the title ‘Activating Human Rights: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status – Leading the Change’.
Smith also stated on the panel that the safety of young LGBTI Australians at school was a significant issue for him.
“I don’t care if its a public school or a private school…children deserve to be safe at school,” Smith said.
“Keeping LGBTI students safe at school is very important for me.”
In the spill which saw Malcolm Turnbull ousted in favour of Scott Morrison in August, Smith notably voted in favour of Peter Dutton’s candidacy for the Liberal leadership.
The Liberal Party, and some state Labor parties, has broadly renounced the Safe Schools program, which continues to receive funding in Western Australia and Victoria.
The WA Liberal Party has vowed to end funding for the program if they take government at the next state election.
Smith drafted the marriage equality legislation which later became law and was vehemently opposed to a plebiscite and the eventual postal survey, crossing the Senate floor to vote against the former.
Smith told the Ally Conference panel that he had realised he had a responsibility to communicate with his more socially conservative colleagues about pressing concerns for the LGBTI community beyond marriage, and particularly on trans issues.
He also reportedly said he needed to become more educated on the unique issues faced by Indigenous LGBTI people.
When asked about the review of religious freedom, Smith said he would keep a “close eye” on its outcome.
“When Australians were forced to vote in the postal survey, the voted and they made their values crystal clear,” he said.
Earlier this year, Smith was named an ambassador for the WA branch of PFLAG.
What I cannot understand is why Dean supported Dutton in the spill. Dutton doesn’t know the meaning of the word “Compassion”. His and ALL the ALP, Liberal & national Party’s MPs and Senators have supported the inhumane treatment of Our refugees, just like Hitler’s Nazis did to the GLBTIQ, Jewish, Romanies, and assorted religious sects (Jehovah’s Witness, 7th day Adventists etc.) and political opponents when they hid them away as far as possible out of the sight of the German population outside Germany’s borders in Poland and other Eastern European countries where they exterminated them, hidden away on Nauru and Manus Island far from the gaze of the Australian People where they are treated worse than convicted criminals..
Yes, all children need to be protected. We all need to be protected from these ultra-right-wing Pentecostals and other religious extremists who make no secret of their loathing for the GLTBIQ community.
People would do well to delve into various politicians family histories to get some idea as to where their sympathies really lie.
Good stuff Dean Smith. Dean’s Senate colleagues Eric Abetz and Matt Canavan will be fuming.
Interestingly I heard Abetz being interviewed recently about the religious freedom stuff and he said that at the core of it must be freedom of speech and opinion. It’s hard to know how you could possibly legislate for more freedom than currently exists in that area and I can’t see how he could legislate against people protesting other people’s opinions which is I think what he would do if there was any way of doing it. Even the old Bjelke-Petersen style police powers to break up groups of protesters are increasingly meaningless in this technical age.
I’m guessing old Eric was just rolling out some buzzwords for the masses and freedom of speech and opinion sounds like the stuff his fans eat up without thinking any further about what it really means.