Family First welcomes the intervention of former charities commissioner and Labor minister Gary Johns on behalf of medical professionals who are bravely challenging the authority of AusPATH – the Australian offshoot of the discredited World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

Last year’s WPATH Files leak exposed the shocking reality that gender clinicians were admitting privately that child patients were being harmed, while publicly claiming “gender-affirming care” was safe. Family First said then that the leaked documents revealed WPATH doctors justifying mastectomies on confused teenage girls and even castration of boys. That culture of denial is what Johns and two major professional bodies representing doctors and nurses are now challenging in Australia.

Gary Johns’ challenge to AusPATH

In a 30-page submission to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, Johns argued that AusPATH fails the legal test for charitable status because its advocacy is causing demonstrable harm. His letter stated:

“In promulgating and advocating for the Australian Informed Consent Standards of Care for Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy, AusPATH fails the public benefit requirement imposed on Australian charities because the proven detriment to the public in carrying out its objectives outweighs any of its benefits.”

Johns was careful to note that his intervention was not political point-scoring:

“It conveys evidence tested in the impartiality of the Australian judicial process and furnished by highly respected clinicians. That evidence leads to the conclusion that the approach advocated by AusPATH is harmful to children.”

This is a devastating assessment. When Australia’s peak gender body is accused by a former federal charities regulator of harming the very people it claims to help, alarm bells should ring in every parliament in the land.

Judge Strum’s warning

Johns’ submission relies heavily on recent Family Court rulings which have exposed the dangers of rushing children into hormones and surgery. In April, Justice Andrew Strum rejected a mother’s bid to place her child on puberty blockers. His judgment accepted expert evidence that:

“The risks posed by medical (and surgical) gender-affirming treatment include risks to fertility, sexual function, bone health, brain development, cardiovascular function and carcinogenesis, as well as the risks of being a lifelong medical patient and of later regret.”

Those words should end the debate. They underline the concerns raised by the UK’s landmark Cass Review, which concluded that the evidence base for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones was “remarkably weak”. Yet AusPATH continues to promote these interventions as safe and necessary.

Time to act

Family First believes the protection of children must come before ideology. When senior doctors and nurses representing 16,000 health professionals are forced to take on AusPATH, it shows how badly our political leaders have failed.

That failure is compounded by taxpayer funding of gender activism. Family First has already called for Equality Australia, the LGBTIQA+ lobby group, to be stripped of its Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. Just like AusPATH, Equality Australia promotes radical gender ideology that harms children and undermines parents.

It is time for governments to stop siding with activists and start listening to medical evidence. Australia cannot afford to follow WPATH and AusPATH down a path that other nations are abandoning. The future of our children depends on political courage to end this dangerous experiment.