When this Queensland mum's child was five, she realized her daughter was trans.
The first thing that she wanted to do was to start wearing girl's shoes to school. Before she did that, I spoke with her about you know that people can be really cruel and she was likely to be teased, which she was, but she was adamant she was going to do it, and she was so happy when she did it.
At first, things went well at school, but then the bullying started.
Within about six months, I moved us out of that area back to a completely new area.
She went to a new school. No one knew who she was, no one knew her background, no one knew she was trans, and she was just with it and mattered.
Weeks of that move, I had this kid who was singing and happy again, and it was the best thing I over did.
But as her daughter got older, the political landscape changed.
There's been a really obvious escalation in the commentary and the actions directed at the trans community. The stuff in America is truly frightening. The first Trump presidency was really awful, but it's so much worse now. But what's even scarier is that we've seen that go from America to We've seen it happen in the UK, and we've seen it happening in Australia.
So when the Queensland government banned puberty blockers earlier this year, she decided to take them to court. I'm Ruby Jones, and you're listening to seven AM today one mum on her fight to get access to medical care for her daughter and all trans children. It's Tuesday, November four So I am not going to use your name, and that's
to protect your daughter's identity. But I thought to begin with, can you tell me about your daughter and the medical support that you got for her as she transitioned.
We were lucky that she'd been a patient of the gender clinic since she was probably within that first year of her identifying as being trans. So we've been with the gender clinic now for over six years. So she got her diagnosis through the gender clinic and they've been monitoring her ever since, periodically a couple of times a year, and it's been a long, what I would call very
measured sort of process. Nothing happens fast. As gender clinic we knew she was getting to the stage where puberty was likely to be coming up a pediatrician A checked and said she wasn't there yet, but then.
She studied going through some grossports and stuff.
We were told we really had a fairly short window to start her on puberty block, as if that was the course we were going to take before those more permanent changes would start to happen, might break, she might start developing facial hair, and that's what she was terrified about. She was terrified of her voice getting deeper. She was terrified, as she said, growing at the end, because that would
out her. Once those changes started to happen, it would be so obvious that she was trans And the big thing for me was I knew with almost absolute certainty that if those changes happened, my chances of ever getting her to go to school were almost on existent.
My chances of getting her to.
Go out into the community that knew her as a girl were almost non existent. And I knew what that might mean for her mental health because we've been through it before when she had been bullied.
And tell me a bit about the political landscape at this time last year.
It was in October, I think that the current queens and government was elected during the election that now a premier basically refused to comment on what the government might do in relation to the trans community. But we knew from the L ANDP state conferences in twenty twenty three.
In twenty twenty four, they'd made motions that were accepted that they should be banning gender affirming care for children and adolescents, including not just in the public system, but in the private system as well.
So in January of this year, which was the same day that Donald Trump signed this executive order that threatened to criminalize gender affirming care for children, the Queensland government followed through on those motions and banned gender affirming care.
It is the bombshell ban that has left trans teenagers in Queensland facing an uncertain future. Now more than one hundred experts are making their voices heard calling on this thing.
How did you feel when you heard that news.
I was furious.
I was just absolutely furious with them. Everything that we had thought might happen based on them being a very conservative government clearly came true. We now know that there were something like four hundred and ninety one kids on the weight.
List for the gender clinic. My daughter is not on the weight list.
She was a patient of the clinic, So that means that there's more than four hundred and ninety one families affected by the ban.
I asked the Director.
General for a statement of reasons in relation to his decision, and he ignored me and all the parents who are for that, and I was forced to take him to court to compel him to give me that statement of reasons.
And when I saw the statement of reasons.
It was really apparent to me that the decision was made by cabinet. He wasn't exercising his decision making powers independently. It was also really clear I thought for his statement of reasons that he didn't do any proper consultation as he was required to do with all the hospitals that are affected by the band. So I was determined that he should be held accountable and the government should be
held accountable for that process. And can I say that's not a decision that you take widely because I actually had to sign a cost agreement when my lawyers felled out that if I lost, I might be personally liable for the Director General's legal costs, and their estimate was one hundred up to one hundred thousand dollars with the proviso that it could be more so. That was not a decision that anyone takes lightly. But I just felt the issue was so important for.
Our family and for the families.
Of those other kids affected by the band, that I had to do it. The trans community is something like one percent of the Israel population.
And why the hell who about.
These cabinet ministers that they think that they should make medical decisions.
For my child. I mean, you know what, where's their expertise? It's just appalling. I know, my child, my doctors, my medical teams be treating my child for a long time. We don't need any anybody else's help.
Coming up the Supreme Court judgment and what comes next.
The mother of a trans teenager argued the Queensland government's freeze on puberty blockers and hormone therapies for new adolescent patients was unlawful. Supreme Court Judge Peter Callahan found in her favor, setting aside.
So, I mean a big risk taking legal action like this financially and obviously with a really big emotional toll too. But you won, you won, we did.
Yeah, yep?
How how did that feel?
Ah? Look to be honest, the judge came back so fast.
I was expecting it.
With the judicial review, you only have to win on one ground, and on the consultation, I thought it was so incredibly clear.
I think after it was over, I was just.
More relieved than anything else, and I was just desperately tired. I was sending up messages to all the other parents that I'm connected with and letting them know, and everyone was so elated.
It was, you know, it was wonderful. But then, as you know, things changed.
So what did the judge ultimately find about how the government made the decision to ban puberty blockers?
Just as Callahan found a twenty two minute online meeting with Health Services did not amount to consultation. But in his written judgment, just as Callahan said, his findings are concerned solely with the legal requirements of the Health Directive, not any review of the Directive's merits.
Well, what we now know from the trial is that that entire decision making process from when the Cabinets submission was prepared to when the Health Service Tore Debanning Gender firmic Care was issued was fifteen days. That's all it was. It was done in secrecy. The Cabinet submission wasn't circulated around the government for consultation like the normal process. It
was given only two ministers. And then what we do know is that there was not one single person involved in preparing the Cabinet submission or in preparing the Health Services directive who had any expertise in treating trans young people. We also know that they didn't consult anybody with that
kind of expertise. And I should just mention that's despite the faith that there is a multidisciplinary specialist team at the gender Clinic literally sitting you know, their offices are just across the river from the Office of the Director General and the office of the Health Minister and where the queens and Cabinet sits. They didn't even bother to get any input from the ex ets who are employed by the Queensland government.
Yeah, so just six hours after that court decision came down, the Health Minister announced that the government would be reinstating the bad.
Well, I think the six hours was when he actually issued his ministryal directive. Hours before that he said he was going to give consideration to doing that, so he didn't give it very much consideration at all.
So I went from sending.
All these messages to all these parents telling them about the great outcome we'd achieved, to then having to tell them, hey, he's made an announcement that he's likely in a ban at to then make, then messaging them and saying he's banned it.
So that was all in the space of six hours. It was. It was just awful.
Yeah, And how is that possible, given that the court had just found that the government had not properly consulted with medical experts, for that to be so quickly disregarded.
Well, I mean, the reality is it's a fresh decision under a different section of the Act, and the Act doesn't that section of the.
Act doesn't require consultation.
Having said that, he says he's made the decision in the public interest.
So the government's concerned to make sure that the services that are provided are in the best interests of children, and we believe that that is a very strong public interest. It's important that the government has an overview of what is in the best interests of children in this state.
I don't think he has.
I think that his decision is affected by the same deficiency that the Director General has in that not one person there was not a single person involved in the entire decision making process who had any expertise in treating trans young people.
And what that means is that the.
Information that was in the cabinets submission, the information that cabinet relied on to make its decision to ban, was limited, lacking, and defective. So, as far as I'm concerned, his decision is equally lacking and defective. This is a decision at the highest level. It's not the Health.
Minister, It's being made by the cabinet.
They're ideologically driven, they're taking queens.
I'm back to the dark ages as far as I'm concerned.
And tell me about what this has meant for you personally and for your daughter during the time that you've been fighting this case.
When I told my daughter about the decision, she was really upset because her big thing was I don't want to grow a beard. I don't want to have my voice break. And I assured her that I would get her into the private system. And I've got to tell you that's an incredibly expensive process. The Purty blocker is alone are seven hundred and thirty nine dollars every three months for the needle, and then you have the doctor's costs.
On top of that, she's had two treatments now. The only way I could afford that was with alone from my mother, who's a pension So I feel sorry for any parent that doesn't have that subward or isn't able to fund it. I know from the other parents in only contact with how much it's impacted their kids personally. I have a friend whose daughter has been suicidal at times, and even though she wasn't affected by the band, the action that the government took, which she saw is so unfair,
sent her into a suicidal spiral. Now they're in a situation where they have to have eyes on her at all times. They've even considered whether they should take the bedroom door of the hinges just so that she can't barricade herself in there. So anybody that dismisses the potential impact on kids' mental health is seriously, seriously wrong.
And so what do you plan to do now? Because the band will continue? Do you plan to continue trying to fight it?
Yep?
Absolutely, we have to continue the fight and it'll be overturned. And I'm actually hoping that if someone does, if someone takes him to court, and that might be me if someone takes him to court, I'm hoping he'll actually have the courage to turn up and give evidence. Because the Director General Queens and Health didn't bother to come to court. He sent some public servants to tell.
Us about his decision making process.
I have been so incredibly lucky that the LGBTI Legal Service has acted pro bono for me.
They are a tiny little legal service and they've done it on the witherm oily rag.
I have been incredibly lucky that three barristers, including a King's counsel, have acted for.
Us pro bono. So I haven't had any costs because imagine this is what the government relies on.
They know how expensive it is to take legal action against them.
You know, it is truly a day versus the life battle.
Well, thank you so much for speaking to me about all of this today.
Thank you.
Also in the news, Optus didn't tell the public that its triple zero outage had led to three deaths for almost a day after finding out. A Senate inquiry has revealed senior leadership also held off on informing the government while it held meetings and prepared talking points. The timeline presented to the Senate showed OPTIS staff knew about the deaths on Thursday night. Executives, including the CEO you by Friday morning, for the Communications Minister was not told until
that afternoon. OPTIS Chief Executive Stephen Rue said he was deeply sorry, but blamed the decisions on those below him. And Andrew mount Batton windsor formally Prince Andrew, should be removed from the line of succession that would allow him
to become the King of the Commonwealth. According to Independent MP Kate Cheney, King Charles's younger brother was stripped of his titles last week over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, but experts say Australia and other Commonwealth countries would require laws to ensure that he doesn't remain an heir to the throne. Cheney says Anthony Abernezi should raise the issue with the British Prime Minister Kirs Starmer. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.