NSW Labor leader declares Safe Schools “gone for good”

NSW Labor leader declares Safe Schools “gone for good”
Image: NSW Labor leader Luke Foley

New South Wales Opposition Leader Luke Foley has vowed that the Safe Schools program won’t return in the state under a Labor government.

The oft-misunderstood program was scrapped by the Liberal government in April following a targeted attack campaign by conservatives.

Speaking on Miranda Devine’s ‘online radio show’, Foley said, “I want to be clear, the Safe School Program will not return.”

“It’s gone for good,” he stated.

Foley indicated an existing distaste for the Safe Schools coalition, perhaps in an attempt to win votes from the large preponderance of No voters in Western Sydney.

“Schools have a role to stop bullying. But what I won’t have is some theory that comes from a university sociology course doing it.

“That’s not helping to stop bullying,” he said, despite research showing that the program did, indeed, help stop bullying.

Star Observer spoke to Benjamin Law earlier this year after his Quarterly Essay on the Safe Schools program was published.

“Think of yourself as a parent who has little understanding of trans people, what are you scared of?

“You’re scared adults might untowardly influence your kids, and that sounds like Safe Schools,” he said.

“I think the [Safe Schools] brand has been tarnished but what hasn’t rolled away is the need for Safe Schools and to keep LGBTI kids safe, and most teachers recognise a need for that.”

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11 responses to “NSW Labor leader declares Safe Schools “gone for good””

  1. Well,no Safe Schools for LGBT kids who are relentlessly teased,bullied,bashed..and the perpetrators now have Social Media as an added edge.
    Schools in my day were hunting grounds for these thugs,and Teachers usually turned a blind-eye or did what little they could,as LGBT students were considered a joke and a minority to be giggled about.
    If the Australian Government and Schools can’t provide Safety for kids who are LGBT ????️‍???? watch the fireworks in Australian Courts with Itchy Lawyers & Solicitors “Begging” to take on Lawsuits…
    There’s going to be Massive changes on Jan 9th,Not just Gay Marriage,but how Australian Society thinks towards the LGBT Community,exciting positive times ahead,thanks

  2. We gay men need to rise up and vote for the Liberal Democrats or the Greens, the only two political parties that actually support LGBTI rights! Labor and LNP have lost my vote for ever and for good! As a libertarian 31 year old gay man who works in NSW Health, I look forward to the day when we are all equal and fought for our rights – including our lesbian, bi, trans* and intersex humans! In fact most of my male partners are bi men! I want to donate blood, but we still have to wait a full 1 year as a defferal to donate blood based on 1999 regulations it’s a joke fucking joke, when in most parts of the UK, you just have to wait 3 months! I look forward to the day when PrEP will be on the PBS. I look forward to the day for 100% self-determination for trans* people just like Ireland, California and Malta have done and the full abolition of forced divorces and unnecessary surgery on trans* people. Adoption and surrogacy is still actually banned for gay couples within both the NT and WA, retrospectfully. The gay panic defence has not been abolished in SA. Their is still much work to do, especially for our trans* and intersex allied partners too!

  3. Transsexualism and non-binary gender identification is not a mental-illness. We know that. So if they’re not mental illnesses, then they’re a natural way to be human. If they’re a natural way to be human, then why can’t that be told to our kids in school?

    Luke Foley wouldn’t dare deny that trans and non-binaries exist naturally. He knows it’s too hot a topic to suggest it’s all new-age bullshit like any conservative politician would. So what he’s tried to do here is sit on the fence when talking to a conservative audience and completely sold out on the ALP’s superficial support for the LGBTIQ+ communities. He’s just told a conservative audience that trans and non-binary identies are only a sociology theory.

    Please note Rainbow Communities, this is typical of the Labor Party. They contradict their own message depending on who they’re talking to. The Greens are the only major party that will stand behind everyone in our communities, every politician, every time. Vote 1 Greens.

  4. Sadly, it does not take Labor a lot to bend over for a vote! Unfortunately NSW is managed by thugs; being labor or liberals. Wake up edits and all you are doing is destroying the state. In an advanced civilised nation one would think that the work of the academic field is prerequisite for success rather than the narrow self interest of politicians

    NSW next state election lets boot both labor and liberals out!

  5. “Foley indicated an existing distaste for the Safe Schools coalition, perhaps in an attempt to win votes from the large preponderance of No voters in Western Sydney.

    “Schools have a role to stop bullying. But what I won’t have is some theory that comes from a university sociology course doing it.

    “That’s not helping to stop bullying,” he said, despite research showing that the program DID, indeed, help stop bullying.”

    Yeah Foley, let’s don’t let silly things like FACTS get in the way of your supposed-moral-high-ground, bigot-seeking pandering. Dickhead.

  6. Typical power-mad politician! He will do anything to win power and if that means displaying his and the ALP’s Homophobia then so be it. Don’t be fooled by all the platitudes and other bullshit. The truth is that, given the ALP’s base this is understandable, the ALP and it’s mates those of the neo-fascist Right-wing of the Liberals and Nationals are homophobic to a man/woman. We all saw what happened to the GLTBIQ community in the old USSR (The Champion of the Downtrodden Working Masses) that paradise for Socialists, and in that other Worker’s Paradise the Communist rules China and North Korea – just to mention a few.
    What We all saw what happened to the GLTBIQ Community when various countries were ruled by those from the Extreme Right of Conservative politics (Spain, Chile, Argentina, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy)
    Remember it was, historically, only very recently that Australia’s politicians from both the Left and the Right actually agreed to acknowledge that our Sexuality is every bit as normal as theirs. They regarded us as Criminals – yes, Criminals for simply admitting that we were Homosexual!
    Just look at how the ALP’s Bill Shorten behaved when in Government. He was one of the loudest in his condemnation of Same Sex Marriage. The ALP had 6 years of majority Government and with the help of the Greens could have made Same Sex Marriage a reality any time between 2007-2013. They did NOTHING.
    As soon as the results of Turnbull’s much-maligned Same Sex Marriage Survey was announced who was the first to claim it as his? Bill Shorten.
    When the Australian Marriage Act was changed as a direct result of a Liberal Senator’s legislation who were the first to claim the result as all theirs? Bill Shorten and Penny Wong. They are all hypocrites of the worst sort.
    The politicians from both gleefully exterminated as many GLTBIQ people as they could.

    • “Just look at how the ALP’s Bill Shorten behaved when in Government. He was one of the loudest in his condemnation of Same Sex Marriage.”

      BS. Shorten voted for same sex marriage in 2012, unlike EVERY LIBERAL AND NATIONAL.

      But feel free to provide a single quote of Shorten condemning marriage equality, Because you never have before, and it’s increasingly evident that you’re pushing a partisan agenda with no regard for the actual truth.

  7. Yet another bigoted churchie with no brain. If arses like you are in the Labour party then I really need to rethink who I vote for. A person like you, Luke Foley, most certainly does not reflect my morals and family values.

  8. Luke Foley is a practicing catholic who also recently voted against voluntary euthanasia, yet is supposed to represent the left wing of the Labor party. I have not heard him speak for or against gay rights. It’s going to make it hard to choose between parties come the next election.