2 September, 2026
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (18:21): I rise to speak today against this bill on behalf of the Greens. The proponents of this bill claim that it protects children, but we know that in fact it does the opposite. This bill would strip away access to puberty blockers for transgender youth. This is a treatment that has been used safely here in South Australia for decades, first for children with precocious puberty and for the past 25 years for trans adolescents under careful medical supervision. Nothing has changed other than the fact that we now have One Nation members in this chamber who are seeking to whip up fear and division.
Let us be clear about what puberty blockers actually do. They are not permanent and they are not surgery. They pause puberty, giving a young person and their family time to work with a healthcare team, giving them time to think, time to be certain before any irreversible step is taken. To use the term that was used by the Hon. Ms Game in her contribution, they provide time.
In the public system, that care is provided by the Women's and Children's Hospital Gender Diversity medical and mental health support teams. It is not a decision that is made in isolation or on impulse: it is a decision made with the support of health professionals. It is a health decision. It is a pause, not a leap into the unknown. Taking that option away does not eliminate the difficult choices that families face. It just removes the safest, most reversible tool that they have for navigating them.
Consider what happens were that tool to disappear. A young person who is certain of who they are does not suddenly stop being trans simply because the law says so. What changes is that their body begins to develop in ways that cause them deep and lasting distress, a distress that research links to higher rates of depression, anxiety and even suicide among trans youth who are denied access to care.
Some families, if they have the means, will travel interstate to access the care that their child or young person might need. Families without those means will simply watch their child suffer or take matters into their own hands without medical support at all. That is not protection: that is abandonment dressed up as caution. That is imposing an ideology onto others and overriding the views of the experts.
I would like thank the following organisations: Trans Justice Adelaide, SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance and SHINE SA. They are some of the organisations that have been working on the ground with trans and gender diverse young people and I thank them for their advocacy, and want them to know that the Greens stand with them and with the trans community in defending trans health care.
Because we have heard some contributions talking about the need to hear from young people, I now want to share some accounts that have been shared with my office, on an anonymous basis. I do want to acknowledge that some of them involve quite traumatic incidents, so I just want to flag that with members. I think they detail why it is really important that this parliament takes a strong position against this bill. I will read the first statement to you:
I'm writing as a 22 year old transmasculine nonbinary person. I was a trans teenager who went through the wrong puberty, and I'm sharing my story to explain why puberty blockers are life saving healthcare.
Note that this contains stories relating to anorexia and eating disorders. It continues:
I come from a religious minority, and thought my family wouldn't support my gender, so I stayed in the closet.
When I was 12, I started female puberty. I developed breasts and got my period. The distress I felt was so bad that I felt suicidal. I no longer saw myself whenever I looked in the mirror.
I tried to stop my body changing, and restricted my food. I was diagnosed with anorexia at 13. I spent most of my teenage years in and out of hospitals. I received intensive therapy. I saw every kind of doctor. I sat in a paediatrician's office as my parents were told they'd be lucky if I even made it to adulthood.
No amount of therapy, or body acceptance, or trying to tell myself I could live in female body ever helped.
None of it made me any less trans.
I was actively dying. My resting heart rate was 150 [beats per minute]. My bones were severely damaged, and I'm still at increased risk for osteoporosis to this day. I fainted regularly. I had entire limbs turn yellow.
I missed months of school. I had no social life. I had no hobbies. In many ways I didn't have a life. My heart almost stopped on multiple occasions.
When I was finally 16, I came out as trans. My family immediately accepted me but I was too medically unstable for transition. Knowing that I could one day access Gender Affirming Care is what gave me the hope to recover, and I started to gain weight. When I was 19, I started my medical transition.
Within months of testosterone, I started to heal from my anorexia. My body finally became my own.
My doctors said they didn't think I would be capable of recovery. Only 30% with anorexia ever recover. 40% live with a life-long eating disorder, and 30 per cent die. Accessing Gender Affirming Care meant I beat the odds.
Today I am health and happy. I have family and friends who love me. I am successful in my studies and my career. And I am surrounded by the most wonderful trans community.
My story is not unique. My story, and thousands of others, show what we have been saying for years: Gender Affirming Care saves lives. Banning puberty blockers won't stop kids from being trans. Banning puberty blockers kills kids.
Another statement I want to share from a constituent:
I'm a paediatric allied health professional. I work closely with many departments within SA Health, the NDIS, Women's and Children's Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre, and a multitude of private paediatric and allied health clinics
In my 15 years experience, I have never come across a situation where a child's access to healthcare has been restricted on the basis of gender. It is a deeply frightening thought that political opinion would govern healthcare rather than evidence based research.
For this reason, I am furious this bill is being put forward. I am furious of the idea that anyone would feel that their opinion or beliefs should entitle them to restrict a child's right to evidence based healthcare. And it is a scary time for us all if this were to occur.
I am also a proud parent of a trans child. A child who, like any other parent, I hope will never need to receive life saving healthcare. I pray that she will live a whole, proud, fulfilled life in the body she was born into, with no need for any medical intervention, medication or a bandaid for that matter! Because that would mean my baby is hurting.
But nearly all parents at some stage, need to access healthcare for their child for one reason or another. It is a parent's worst nightmare to think their child will need medical intervention. That nightmare becomes all the more unthinkable there is life saving healthcare out there that they need, but they are not allowed to access, purely based on their gender.
And for this reason, I am terrified. In the same way any other parent will be terrified to learn that their child is likely to need a life saving healthcare, and that people are actively trying to take it away. Simply because of who she is. Which is a beautiful, kind, joyful child, who has done nothing other than be true to herself.
Healthcare should always be based on research, backed by evidence, and decided between a family and their doctor. It should never be based on or restricted by belief, prejudice and discrimination. Healthcare saves lives. Gender affirming healthcare saves lives. Unconditional love saves lives.
Another statement for you, Mr President:
It is essential that 'puberty blockers', so-called, remain an option for practitioners working with young transgender clients. This is because they can provide for a timely pause at one of the most critical points in the care of a trans-identifying child. They allow everyone involved, the young person themselves, their parents and loved ones, other stakeholders and the many professionals involved in their care, to 'take a breather'.
Puberty is challenging for most adolescents. But for trans kids, the thought of the changes it will inevitably bring can be a threat to their very sense of self. The period immediately before its onset represents their very last chance to ponder who they will become and how they will develop physically.
To deny the right of access to puberty pausing care is to ensure poor long term mental health outcomes for many trans-identifying children. It is almost certain to contribute to the already high suicide rate among this already incredibly vulnerable group.
Those are just some of the constituent experiences and stories that have been shared with me.
One Nation has introduced this bill to deny access to puberty blockers for trans-children. It is a denial of basic health care that will have long-term consequences for trans-people in our state. Might I say, it is deeply saddening to see this ugly, divisive campaign being waged by One Nation and being aided and abetted by some other members in this place. It is the Greens' view that trans-care is health care and trans-rights are fundamental human rights.
It is my hope and expectation that this bill will be defeated today, and I say to One Nation: that is the end of the matter—that is the end of the matter. This parliament adopting a clear position that this bill not progress settles the matter and I urge them to send this bill to the shredder, where it belongs. I make the same point in relation to the Hon. Sarah Game's efforts to try to reventilate this issue with some inquiry. We saw a debate on this in the previous parliament, it was rejected, it needs to be rejected again.
We urge One Nation, Family First and other right-wing parties in this place to stop using trans-people as political footballs. Stop trying to regulate their bodies, stop trying to control LGBTI people, finally recognise the fundamental human rights of each and every South Australian and accept this parliament's verdict because this bill is going down.