Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 16 February 2017.)

Mr PEDERICK: Where do I go? It is no surprise that I am conservative and that I represent what I believe is a pretty conservative electorate. There are other opinions in my electorate and they have been voiced to me, which I applaud, because that is what politics is about. If you could please everyone in your community or the state, you would be a miracle person. No-one is going to be able to do that. I appreciate the people who have discussed these bills with me.

I remember having a very robust conversation with a woman who had a transgender child. I appreciated her commentary and at the end of a reasonably lengthy conversation, about half an hour, I said, 'Look, we're just going to have to agree to disagree on some of these matters,' but I was pleased that she made the effort to contact me to put her point of view, as have other people in my electorate, because that is what politics is about. I do worry, though, about this focus on one group of people when there is so much we need to do to make this state a viable place to operate a business and raise young people and to at least be a place where we keep the electricity and the lights on. I am not convinced that we are anywhere close to doing that under the current government.

Quite a bit of angst has been expressed to me at various social functions in regard to this series of legislation and around the Safe Schools program, and concerns have also been raised with me about unisex toilets in schools. I firmly believe that there are likely to be some issues with unisex toilets in schools. I certainly hope there is not but there is a high potential for issues where people claiming to be one gender or the other use it as an excuse to be inside a certain toilet. We will have to wait and see.

One thing we need to do as a society is work with our young people. They can be confused—I think we can all be confused at different stages of our life—but we need to work with young people to make sure that they have a clear path when growing up and do not make rash decisions in their early years that they may regret in the future. I know it is said that this is consequential, but I have not supported the raft of legislation behind this and I do not support it.