A Queensland Liberal Nationwide occasion official despatched an election-eve electronic mail to department members – on occasion letterhead – claiming the state had been “captured by transgender ideology”. The e-mail additionally promoted plans to ban puberty blockers for minors.
The state opposition has repeatedly refused to reply questions in regards to the electronic mail, obtained by Guardian Australia, amid rising stress for the LNP chief, David Crisafulli, to make clear the occasion’s intentions on abortion, voluntary assisted dying and gender points.
Crisafulli on Wednesday wouldn’t say whether or not he would personally assist a foreshadowed crossbench invoice to limit, or presumably re-criminalise, abortion.
Considerations have been rising inside the LNP that social points have been harming the occasion’s ambitions to make positive factors in progressive metropolis electorates within the state election on 26 October.
Earlier this 12 months, the Christian proper faction took management of the LNP’s Griffith FDC – a big occasion department within the Greens-held South Brisbane citizens. The veteran anti-abortion activist Alan Baker was elected the chair.
Guardian Australia has obtained an electronic mail from Baker, despatched on occasion letterhead, to members selling a speech by Jillian Spencer, a former public hospital psychiatrist who made allegations in regards to the state’s kids’s gender service. An impartial investigation discovered “no evidence” to assist claims kids have been hurried or coerced into selections, and beneficial a rise in employees ranges to satisfy demand.
“Labor governments in Queensland and other Australian states and territories have been captured by transgender ideology and are yet to catch up to the science,” Baker wrote.
He additionally despatched – highlighted in daring – a reference to the LNP’s organisational wing coverage on the problem, handed on the state conference in 2024, which calls on the subsequent LNP authorities to “ban puberty blockers to minors with gender dysphoria”.
Crisafulli’s workplace didn’t reply to questions in regards to the electronic mail, despatched in September, together with requests to stipulate his insurance policies in relation to transgender rights.
Questions despatched to the LNP on Wednesday additionally obtained no response.
Requested in the beginning of the marketing campaign whether or not the LNP would decide to rising staffing for the youngsters’s gender service, consistent with the assessment advice, the opposition well being spokesperson, Ros Bates, mentioned the occasion had but to come back to a place.
“They’re not the things that Queenslanders are asking me about, whilst I understand it’s important. It is not what people are asking us right now,” she mentioned.
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Crisafulli has long-promised that he wouldn’t search to repeal or change Queensland’s abortion legal guidelines if the LNP is elected, and that it was not among the many occasion’s core priorities.
However his hand may very well be pressured by the crossbencher Robbie Katter, who has promised to convey on a personal member’s invoice to change Labor’s abortion legal guidelines, and even hinted he may push for a “clean repeal” which might re-establish a legal offence.
“All I could say is, everything will be on the table because we’re very serious about our position on this,” Katter advised Guardian Australia on Wednesday.
“It would be a counterpoint to everything that’s gone into the parliament. So we would be looking to wind back as much as we could.”
Crisafulli was requested in regards to the challenge 39 occasions on Wednesday however wouldn’t say whether or not he would grant his MPs a conscience vote. A lot of the priority – dubbed by some a “scare campaign” – in regards to the prospect of adjustments to abortion legal guidelines underneath an LNP authorities surrounds long-held private views of many opposition MPs and LNP candidates.
They embody the previous federal senator Amanda Stoker, who mentioned in 2018 that Labor’s Queensland legal guidelines have been “repugnant” and “barbarism [with] the cloak of civility”.
Two MPs – Jon Krause and the retiring rightwinger Mark Robinson – have made public feedback suggesting reforms may happen after the election.
Guardian Australia revealed on Wednesday that Robinson advised a Christian podcast in August there “are no doubt corrections that will happen over time”.
