AXING frivolous school subjects such as puppetry and wearable art doesn’t go far enough according to NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham.
With more than 20 per cent of NSW’s school electives to be phased out from 2022, the former federal Labor leader is demanding gender fluidity classes also be scrapped.
The State government has launched a “back-to-basics” review of its curriculum – the first in 30 years – and has identified a list of 80 subjects to be dropped.
- Latham calls for social, moral & ethical education to be handled by parents.
- Activist organisations have describe his proposed legislation as 'harmful'.
- Public hearings to assess the merits of the bill to commence shortly.
These include lessons in volunteering, citizenship, global communications, travel, film, leather, environmental studies, outdoors, leadership, bushcraft, puppetry, critical thinking and law & order.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said schools would be freed up to focus on “core learning areas”.
“Removing unnecessary courses allows schools and teachers the time and resources to deliver the essentials for students.”
One Nation’s Mark Latham, however, is pushing to have gender fluidity lessons also removed from NSW classrooms.
His private members bill would see all cross-gender courses banned and allow parents to remove their children from any class they morally disagree with.
Mr Latham said his Education Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill would prevent schools teaching “ideologically-based and political material” that is inconsistent with the wishes of parents.
He said the bill defined gender using biology not “social construction”.
PRIMACY
“A child’s social, moral and ethical values must be the responsibility of their parents,” Mr Latham said.
A parliamentary committee has been established to evaluate the proposed legislation.
“This bill is about winding back the creep of gender fluidity ideologies into NSW schools and re-establishing the primacy of parents in shaping their children’s development and sense of identity,” the committee’s statement said.
“This inquiry will provide a forum for evaluating the merits of the bill and subjecting it to detailed examination informed by expert evidence.”
Pro-gender fluidity group Equality Australia has described Mr Latham’s bill as harmful and that it denied the existence of trans and gender students.
Its position was backed by other organisations including the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, the Australian Association of Social Workers, the NSW Council of Social Services and the NSW Branch of the Independent Education Union who urged the NSW Parliament to reject the bill.
Mr Latham, however, said his bill would not deny any student from accessing support from schools.
A series of public hearings are planned for coming months.PC
Let’s face it! It’s not just the fact that Mark Latham would look horrible in a dress and red lipstick on that he is against this crazy new doctrine.
It’s just common sense to build our education system on biological fact rather than crazy wokeism.
It’s interesting to see that it’s One Nation that is acting resolutely to stymie the socialist agenda of the Liberal party in N.S.W. The fact that Mark Latham is the one standing up for common decency and common sense in the face of Gladys and her amoral and anti-intellectual legislation is indicative of an ongoing tectonic shift in our political landscape. It won’t be long before the Liberals are reduced to a mere rump, at which time they can enter into a coalition with their true political soulmates, the Greens.
Thank goodness someone in our State Parliament has some intelligent sense!
Of course such sensitive areas, such as gender fluidity and gender orientation, should be strictly left in the domain of parents to broach with their children as they see fit.
As our educational standards have plummeted , a wise ‘back to basics’ is desperately needed.