A health service directive this week issued by the Queensland Government banning the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors under 18 should lead to an immediate pause on the treatments across Australia.One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson said the ban had vindicated her party’s calls for an inquiry into the alarming increase in Australian children being treated with the drugs.

“I congratulate the Queensland Government for heeding the increasing evidence of the risks these treatments pose to children and banning them,” Senator Hanson said. “Other governments in Australia need to follow suit immediately.

“New Zealand, the United Kingdom and other European countries, and jurisdictions in the United States have all woken up to the risks of these treatments and the lack of clinical evidence supporting their use.

“In December last year I called for a national ban on puberty blockers for minors following the finding – after a lengthy, comprehensive inquiry and review – by the UK’s independent Commission on Human Medicines they posed an ‘unacceptable safety risk’ to children. The UK Labour government then immediately banned their use for children under 18.

“For years now One Nation has been highlighting the risks and life-long consequences of treating children with these drugs, and moving inquiries into this issue in the Senate. Each and every time Labor, the Greens, crossbench senators Payman, Thorpe, Pocock, Lambie and Tyrrell and even some Coalition senators have used their numbers to block these inquiries.

“Their opposition to an inquiry is hypocritical to say the least. They claim they want to protect ‘trans’ children but they ignore the evidence of the harm these treatments are doing to these same kids. They chant ‘trans rights are human rights’ as if children’s rights are not human rights too.

“Now that a government in Australia has banned puberty blockers for minors, they cannot ignore this evidence any longer.

“The ‘gender affirmation’ approach to treating children as young as 12 with these dangerous drugs is obviously driven by political ideology, not clinical best practice.

“We’ve seen gender clinics – such as the Cairns Sexual Health Service – prescribe puberty blockers to children as young as 12 with no medical support and without the knowledge or consent of parents. We’ve seen experts – like Queensland’s Jillian Spencer – sacked and even threatened with prison terms for speaking out against the ‘gender affirmation’ approach. Dr Spencer has been vindicated too.

“We must ban these treatments for children under 18 right across Australia.”

ENDS