Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party have announced that they will bring forward legislation to stop doctors from treating people experiencing gender incongruence with medication until they are over the age of 18.

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The religious based political party says children should be “afforded nothing but love and support” until they are 18 years old. The proposed bill will be Fred Nile’s final contribution to the New South Wales parliament before retirement.

The legislation will be serve as a baton passing to incoming leader Lyle Shelton who is stet to replace Nile upon his retirement. The former leader of the Australian Christian Lobby and head of the ‘No’ campaign against marriage equality previously had an unsuccessful tilt at federal politics as part of Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives.

The party argues that the growing number of children who are being recognised as transgender is due to changes in the education system in recent years.

“The publicisation of LGBTIQA+ gender fluid ideology and its introduction into schools has seen the numbers of children presenting with gender dysphoria skyrocket,” Shelton said in a post to his website.

He argues that across the world there is a movement to outlaw treating children under the age of 18, citing recent decisions in the USA, Britain and Scandinavian countries. In his post Shelton suggests people read the work of The Australian‘s journalist Bernard Lane.

Lane has authored a substantial number of articles arguing that transgender children should not be treated under the current model. Lane’s articles have been labelled as transphobic by trans and gender diverse health professionals, and “bad journalism” by ABC’s media watchdog Media Watch.

OIP Staff

The Australian newspaper was contacted for comment in relation to this report. 

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