OPINION
Peter Foster MLC is a Labor MP representing the Mining and Pastoral region.
Liberal Leader Libby Mettam’s opposition to gender-affirming care and the abolition of the Gender Reassignment Board, along with endorsing an openly transphobic candidate for the seat of Albany, is proof of just how far the Liberal Party has lurched to the right.
I’ve never known an institution as hated as WA’s soon-to-be abolished Gender Reassignment Board. Conjured up by a dying Liberal Government at the turn of the century, it subjected trans people to archaic, intrusive and humiliating processes in order to have their gender identity legally recognised.
I’m glad its days are numbered. No person could listen to trans and gender diverse individuals sharing lived experience of what it feels like to deal with that Board and not decide it had to go.
Was it really too much to expect the WA Liberals might decide the same? The Bill before State Parliament is hardly a radical step. Liberal-held seats have trans and gender diverse constituents who have called for this to happen. And since the Bill has no effect on anyone else at all, why would anyone oppose it?
The Liberals always talk about individual freedom and small government, so you’d think they’d support getting rid of an unnecessary, bureaucratic government body created for the sole purpose of interfering in people’s lives?
Apparently, it is too much to expect. Instead, Libby Mettam Liberals have decided this is a great opportunity to move her party even further to the right.
In her speech to the Legislative Assembly, the Liberal leader used this Bill as an opportunity to trot out the same old scaremongering about bathrooms, prisons, schools, sports clubs, change rooms etc, quote anti-trans organisations like the LGB alliance, and even linked trans people with sexual offenders.
We have heard this stuff all before. When parliament debated equalising the age of consent 22 years ago, they equated gay men with sexual predators. The scaremongering is always the same, they just shift the target further right.
Ms. Mettam is especially concerned about “biological males” being allowed into women-only spaces, demanding safeguards to make sure it can never happen.
In doing so, she is ignoring how gendered violence occurs, where it occurs, and who is most likely to be committing it. She is also ignoring the fact that trans women are infinitely more likely to be the victims of gendered violence and sexual assault than the perpetrators.
Her recent comments on gender affirming care for minors are just as alarming.
Unfortunately, this is just part of a broader trend in the WA Liberals.
The party room is dominated by Nick Goiran, a religious conservative. Down south we have Albany City Councillor Thomas Brough who was briefly famous for his comments linking the LGBTIQA+ community and paedophiles. That kind of reprehensible comment should not be tolerated, and any decent mainstream party would want to distance itself from the person who said this.
The WA Liberals responded by endorsing him as their candidate for the seat of Albany. They say the standard you walk past is the standard you accept. To be fair, you can’t accuse Libby Mettam of walking past homophobia and transphobia. She runs right up to them and invites them into the party room.
I wonder how many members of the LGBTIQA+ community Dr. Brough, Ms. Mettam and Mr. Goiran have met and talked with. The Busselton Pride Alliance – a group in Libby’s own electorate – recently invited the Liberal Party leader to listen to trans people after she made her comments on puberty blockers. I strongly encourage Libby Mettam to take the time to meet with this group.
We know there is more work to be done to make WA a fairer and more equal place for LGBTIQA+ people. Members of our community deserve better than being used as targets in a culture war. And every voter in WA deserves a better standard of debate than the one Libby Mettam’s Liberals have adopted.
Peter Foster MLC is a Labor MP representing the Mining and Pastoral region.
