Hastings electorate
Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (14:45): (543) Evie is a transgender woman who came to my office last week to talk about her experience at school. She told me that school was not a happy place for her, and in fact she had to move schools due to bullying. Unfortunately, the bullying was not just from students but also from some teachers. Evie really wanted to impress upon me that the reason behind her bullying was ignorance, and the only way to combat ignorance is to educate. So my constituency question is to the Minister for Education. What work is being done to educate trainee teachers, working teachers and school students around understanding and supporting transgender students in our schools? I asked my daughter who is a teacher what training she had when she went to university that dealt specifically with transgender students, and her reply was zero. Evie spoke about the need for better education to eliminate the ignorance and fear around transgender issues. She wants to empower trainee teachers, working teachers and students through education to better understand what transgender actually means.