Topics: Cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games; `Rainbow Toolkit’ for public libraries.
Peta Credlin: Now to news over the weekend that Victorians will pick out the tab for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Scotland. That’s because when Daniel Andrews cancelled the Games, he paid almost $400 million in compensation on top of the millions already wasted in Games preparations, and it’s this money that Scotland will use to fully fund the games in Glasgow. Well, good deal for them. Not so good for poor old Victorians in a state that’s already drowning in debt. Joining me now to discuss this and more, shadow education minister, Senator Sarah Henderson. Well, you’re a Victorian Senator, I tell you what – how can Scotland fund the games on less than what Melbourne paid to cancel them?
Senator Henderson: Peta, good evening, and this is an international embarrassment. Good on Scotland for taking on the Games. After what Daniel Andrews did to regional Victoria – including here in Geelong as well as Ballarat and Bendigo – promised to deliver these Games. And then, of course, the costs blew out to an unbelievable $6.9 billion, and we know it was unbelievable because the Auditor General said so. And it’s just another illustration of how the Labor Party here in Victoria is running this state off the cliff, a shocking international embarrassment. And as the shadow sports minister here in Victoria, Sam Groth has said, so well, you know, `What does it say about Victoria when Scotland can host the Games for half of what we paid in compensation?’.
Peta Credlin: Yeah. And Daniel Andrews – you’re right to remind us – said the Games would cost $6 billion. Six billion – Scotland can put it on for $200 million – Labor can’t add up.
Senator Henderson: No, because originally the first forecast, Peta, was $2.1 billion, then it went, in fact, to $6.9 billion. The Auditor General here in Victoria said they were $2.1 billion out. It was an absolute shambles, but it just goes to show how basically irresponsible this government is in Victoria. They are running this state broke. The quicker we get rid of Labor in Victoria, and of course, federally, the better. But it is just an example of how out of depth this government is. And the fact that Daniel Andrews had that the temerity to say, `Oh no, that’s because the costs were too high’. When we can see the Games could be run in another country, in Glasgow, for a couple of hundred million dollars – an absolute international embarrassment. And now Victoria is pitching to host the Gay Games. What a joke. Why would any games want to come to this state after the way Daniel Andrews and Labor and now Jacinta Allan has trashed our reputation.
Peta Credlin: And why should poor old taxpayers allow the Victorian Government to waste more money? Let’s go to your portfolio, because in Victoria, we saw announced over the weekend something called the `Rainbow Toolkit’. It’s being rolled out across all public libraries in the state, which, amongst other things, will demand librarian staff to ask children what their preferred pronouns might be, tells the staff to avoid gendered language and to offer the kids a pronoun badge or a pin or a lanyard. Now these kids were talking about are as young as five – I bet they don’t even know what a pronoun is. This is something that’s squarely for parents to talk about, not when they go to borrow a book, getting a lesson on gender theory.
Senator Henderson: Well, Peta, as you said before, this is absolute gender madness, and it just goes to show how toxic this government is here in Victoria. What is Jacinta Allan doing? I mean, this is an absolute embarrassment, but more than that, it’s really serious, because this is blatant indoctrination of very young children, and we are seeing this right across our education system, and parents have had a gutful. They do not want identity politics, whether it’s on race, on gender, on any other issue, and they do not want their children indoctrinated. And I just wanted to refer to this is not just going on in libraries, Peta, this is also going on in early learning centres. And I just want to refer to the Early Learning Years Framework. So, this is for children under five in childcare centres across this country under the Albanese government. And one of the guidelines is `…educators are encouraged to draw upon a range of perspectives in their work, which may include feminist and post-structuralist theories that offer insights into issues of power, equity and social justice in early childhood settings’. Now that is the sort of garbage that our young educators are being taught. It is completely disgusting, and frankly, it is no wonder that parents are leaving some schools in droves and early childhood settings when they see this sort of rubbish going on.
Peta Credlin: And their NAPLAN results are in the toilet and internationally, we are a basket case. Sarah Henderson, thank you.