Mark Latham seeks to outlaw ability to identify as ‘transgender’ and rejects ‘gender fluidity’

Phoebe Loomes news.com.au

The former Australian Labor Party leader yesterday posted the policy announcement to his Facebook page Mark Latham’s Outsiders and his unverified Twitter page @RealMarkLatham which has 24,800 followers.

Mr Latham, who is now NSW leader of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and will run for a seat in the Legislative Council at the upcoming state election, claimed the move would avoid the “abuse of the school education system and official government documentation”.

In the statement titled “Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Will End Transgender Self-Identification in NSW”, he said he rejects “gender fluidity”.

“The 2016 Census revealed 1300 Australians identifying themselves as transgender, or 0.005 per cent of the population,” Mr Latham wrote in the Facebook post. “Yet to listen to the Leftist hype about this issue, you would think there were 13 million.

“In reality, with very few exceptions, people are born either male or female. To move away from this biological truth later in life is a serious matter requiring specialist medical evidence. “It (self identification as trans) should not happen because of Leftist ideology, individual whims or novelty factors.”

In the post, Mr Latham went on to say that One Nation did not believe that gender changes should be self-identified on NSW Government forms, permits and licences, such as those processed by Service NSW.

These agencies included the Roads and Maritime Services, Department of Fair Trading and Births, Deaths and Marriages.

However, Service NSW already requires extensive documentation for individuals to change their genders on official documentation, including multiple signed and witnessed doctor’s certificates and permission granted by a parent or guardian for people under 18.

“No one in NSW should be able to change their gender at the drop of a hat (literally),” Mr Latham continued. “This is an important issue that should be determined solely by expert medical advice.

“NSW One Nation believes in supporting biological and medical science, rather than radical Left-wing propaganda.”