MEDIA RELEASE
Freedom of Information documents reveal Victorian school staff are instructed not to tell parents when their child seeks to change gender at school. Family First’s Jane Foreman says this is a betrayal of every Victorian parent — and it ends in November.
They didn’t ask you. They didn’t tell you. And under the Allan government’s policy, they don’t have to. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information reveal that Victorian Department of Education policy explicitly instructs school staff not to inform parents when a child seeks to change their gender identity at school — including name, pronouns, and social presentation.
“This is not progressive education. This is a government hiding things from parents about their own children. It is a scandal.”
The Allan government’s own Education Minister has admitted to Parliament that there is ‘no formal process’ for declaring a student a mature minor and that the Department ‘does not collect data’ on how often such declarations occur. In plain English: ideologically motivated staff can make consequential decisions about your child’s identity, exclude you entirely from the process, and nobody is counting how often it happens. This is the same government that spends $11.2 million on LGBTQIA+ programs in its state budget while parents in the western suburbs struggle to keep the lights on.
If elected, Family First’s Jane Foreman will immediately remove all gender ideology from Victorian classrooms, mandate parental notification for any social transition, and refocus the curriculum on the things parents actually sent their children to school to learn.
“Parents do not surrender their rights at the school gate. They are not the enemy of their children’s wellbeing — they are the most important adults in their children’s lives. The Allan government has forgotten that. Family First never will.”
“Get gender politics out of classrooms. Get reading, writing, and arithmetic back in. Non-negotiable.”
“When I talk to parents about this, the first thing I see is hurt. Not anger — hurt. Because they trusted the system. They dropped their kids off every morning and assumed the school had their back. Finding out that the government has been deliberately keeping them in the dark is a gut-punch. I want those parents to know: Family First is in their corner.”
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