Mike Baird Supports The Government Gutting Safe Schools, Because Of Course He Does

Four days after the government caved to conservatives and announced the Safe Schools program would be “gutted” and eventually defunded, the issue continues to bring out the best and worst in the country’s political leaders, depending on which way you swing. Safe Schools dominated much of the discussion on last night’s Q&A, with federal Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg struggling to articulate why the program so desperately needed rolling back in the face of substantial opposition from questioners and audience members.

Frydenberg’s frosty reception was in stark contrast to the one given to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, a vocal supporter of Safe Schools who’s offered to fill the funding gap left by the government’s withdrawal so every Victorian government secondary school can run the program.

Last night on @QandA​, a student’s passionate perspective on the necessity of the safe schools program.https://t.co/Fdsg6inXTU

— ABC iview (@abciview) March 21, 2016

With Andrews taking the fight to the federal government on the issue, there’s been pressure on his fellow Premiers to do the same. But in an interview with ABC 702 Sydney this afternoon, NSW Premier Mike Baird supported the program being rolled back.

“There is third-party material, links through to websites that I think, if you have a look at it, you’d think: ‘How on earth can our children be looking at this?'” Baird said. “I think that the changes that the federal government announced are sensible and reasonable.”

Baird also supported a change to the program that would require kids to obtain permission from their parents before participating in Safe Schools, playing down concerns that such a requirement could prove distressing and even dangerous for LGBT kids in non-supportive families. “I don’t think that in the context [of a student not being openly gay] whether a program is running or whether there is a permission slip from a parent, that is necessarily going to change the individual circumstance of a student at all,” Baird said.

It’s not the first time Baird has taken a conservative position on LGBT issues being taught in schools. Last year Baird was roundly criticised for restricting schools from screening Gayby Baby, a documentary about kids with same-sex parents, after the Daily Telegraph accused schools showing the movie of “brainwashing kids with propaganda”.