Topics: Indoctrination in early learning, Hizb ut-Tahrir, university encampments
Chris Kenny: I want to go to another issue that’s risen in a childcare centre in Parramatta in New South Wales today, where we learned that the pre-school kids going to a childcare centre are being educated about Pride Month and learning all about these LGBTIA diversity issues when these kids are three and four years old, is this appropriate?
Senator Henderson: Chris, good afternoon, and no, it’s not appropriate. There is no room in any education setting for activism or for indoctrination. I heard a story, in fact, a father wrote to me the other day and said his child, four years old, went to an excursion, went to pick up a shell on the beach and was told by the preschool teacher, `Don’t touch that, you are on stolen land, that is not yours’. So, there is some crazy stuff going on in our childcare centres, in our schools. And again, we have seen a pathetic response from the Albanese Government. The activism, the indoctrination is getting more and more out-of-control and it’s got to be stopped, Chris, simple as that.
Chris Kenny: How would you stop it as federal minister?
Senator Henderson: Well, there are a range of challenges in how you would stop it because, of course, the schools are run by the states and territories. ACARA is, of course, the overarching agency responsible for our curriculum. Frankly, they need to do a much better job. The government is not holding ACARA accountable insofar as how they are delivering the curriculum. Some states and territories are doing a better job than others. But frankly, Chris, it gets down to leadership in schools and it gets down to leadership of state and federal education ministers. This should not be tolerated in any form. For instance, when there was the school teacher, who effectively endorsed Hamas, shocking conduct by a secondary school teacher in Melbourne. We saw the education minister say nothing at all. That teacher continued in his job for a number of weeks, we still don’t know whether he’s lost his job. But that sort of behaviour is unacceptable. There are national codes of conduct for teachers and frankly, they must be complied with. And if they’re not being complied with, those teachers need to go.
Chris Kenny: Just quickly, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamist organisation that is legal in Australia but has been banned as a terrorist-sympathising group in other countries, it’s been exposed as being involved in these university protests. Now, how do you keep Hizb ut-Tahrir out of those settings? And should the government be looking at banning that organisation in Australia?
Senator Henderson: Absolutely. As has happened in the UK, the government must investigate banning this organisation. Under the criminal code any organisation which promotes or fosters or encourages terrorist activity, they are grounds to declare an organisation a terrorist organisation. So again, we have seen the government sitting very much on its hands on this issue. It is alarming what is happening, particularly at the University of Sydney. We warned two months ago, `Shut these encampments down, they will attract extremists’. They are inciting hate. They are inciting division and, of course, shocking antisemitism.
Chris Kenny: Absolutely.
Senator Henderson: And I condemn any university. Sydney has now come to the party late but frankly, ANU is doing an appalling job in not shutting down its encampment. It is just not good enough. And of course, we now see these extremists flocking to our universities, which is frankly shocking.
Chris Kenny: Thank you for joining us, Sarah.