Conservative government MP Cory Bernardi has allegedly told a mother who supports the Safe Schools Coalition program that if her five year old son was exposed to the program by the time he’s a teenager he would be researching bondage clubs and sex toys.
Buzzfeed have revealed that Melbourne woman Pia Cerveri emailed the South Australian senator on Monday night to express concern over his views on the anti-bullying program Safe Schools Coalition.
The mother of two was surprised when she got a quick response to her email. The response came from the senator’s official emails address and was signed with the initials C.B.
The response read; “You clearly haven’t got any idea what is in the program. If you did, then you would worry about your children being exposed to unhealthy ideas at such an early age.”
The email went to one to suggest that if Ms Cerveri allowed her young son to read the book ‘The Gender Fairy’ that by the time the young boy was a teenager he could “just use the girls change room whilst using the links provided on the information website to find more about bondage clubs and adult sex toys.”
Ms Cerveri has spoken to the Huffington Post Australia and explained that her youngest child has just started school, but his school does not have the Safe Schools Coalition program. Ms Cerveri said her children had two mothers, but she was separated from her same sex partner. She said she found the tone of the email aggressive, arrogant and dismissive.
Senator Bernardi’s office have not commented on the email when contacted by journalists, but the senator has posted a message to his Twitter account saying “The truth is like poetry, its just so unfortunate that so many people don’t like poetry.”
Last week the government announced that the anti-bullying program that aims to assist LGBTIQ students would have major changes following a concerted campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby to have the program scrapped.
Senator Bernardi was one of the backbench government MP’s leading the call for the program to be pulled.
Update 23-03-16: On Wednesday morning Huffington Post Australia reported that they had received a second email from Senator Bernardi criticising their story.
Senator Bernardi responded on Twitter saying the email sent to the Huffington Post’s journalist was not from him, but faked. The Senator said; “activists are now resorting to faking emails to fool journalists.” The Senator said he would make inquiries to find out if ‘spoofing’ an email was a criminal offence.
Senator Bernardi confirmed that he was the author of the email to Pia Cerveri. The senator tweeted that his response to Ms Cerveri may have been abrupt but appropriate.
Senator Bernardi’s office was contacted directly for comment.
OIP Staff
Abrupt and inappropriate, I’d say. Then there’s his arrogant comment about poetry. Free speech is his right but with this demonstrated low level of people skills one has to wonder how he got into politics in the first place.
So tell me Mr. Bernadi, what is so wrong with a boy entering puberty in finding out what “floats his boat”. Not everyone likes the “Missionary position” or Vanilla sex?
Cory Bernardi offends me everyday he makes one of his noccuous comments. I must be very threatening to him despite only being 5’2″. Let’s hope real sense prevails and SA voters removes him next election.