Women Speak Tasmania has received a number of messages from parents across the state expressing concern about the Growing Up Program (GUP), which is delivered by Family Planning Tasmania (FPT) in public schools.
Parents have raised issues relating to transparency, the language used in teaching materials, and the implicit introduction of gender identity concepts to primary school children.
The following are first-hand accounts from Tasmanian parents who have contacted us to share their experiences.
(Some names of schools and identifying details have been withheld for privacy and security reasons.)
Parent (Mum) 1:
The following letter was written by a Tasmanian parent who has raised serious concerns about the Growing Up Program (GUP), delivered by Family Planning Tasmania (FPT) in public schools across the state. The parent highlights issues with transparency, the use of language in sex education, and the implicit teaching of gender identity concepts to primary school children.
Family Planning Tasmania delivers the Growing Up Program (GUP) in Tasmanian Schools. I write this as a mother with two children in Tasmanian public schools. My children are both in primary school. I believe sex education is important; however, it should reflect the reality that there are two sexes, and use normal language that women and girls are female and boys and men are male.
Our school provided the opportunity for a parent information session on GUP. This was held at 8:30 a.m. on a Monday, the same week that the lessons were to be taught. One of my children had a GUP session the same day.
The woman representing FPT at the session wore a she/her pronoun badge, which immediately led me to doubt her impartiality, professionalism, and competence. She then went through what the children would be taught. The younger grades would learn very basic information about body parts and what was private. Beginning from Year 3, children would learn about puberty and the two reproductive systems.
I asked a question about the language used, and whether GUP is specific about the fact that boys go through male puberty and girls go through female puberty. The FPT representative said that they use language that explains the two types of puberty, but they refer to “people with penises” and “people with vulvas” when explaining the difference. At this point I asked if I could see the written materials they teach that stipulates this language. She said she doesn’t have a script when delivering GUP, and she would need to check with her manager.
I called FPT afterwards to confirm that this is the language they use, and do not use accurate, sex-based language. The acting head of education programs at FPT confirmed that the dehumanising language that reduces people to body parts and functions is used by FPT, including in delivering GUP to primary school children in Tasmania. It is not possible to obtain written evidence of this, however, as FPT does not make available their teaching materials, even to concerned parents.
An organisation that is charged with teaching safeguarding to our children wants to keep secrets about what they are teaching. As a mother, this is not good enough, and FPT should be completely open about what they are saying to our children when they teach GUP.
FPT maintains, despite the above, that they do not cover ‘gender’ issues with primary school children. By this they mean that they do not explicitly state that children can be born in the wrong body, and that you have a choice about which puberty you go through. However, by dissociating the words boys and girls, women and men, from the physical reality of our male and female bodies, FPT is buying into gender identity ideology and implicitly teaching it to our primary school children. Our children are being taught from a young age that women and girls, men and boys are words that have no relationship to the male and female sexes.
Parent (Mum) 2:
My grade 3 daughter had the Growing Up Program at the end of last term in Launceston. I rang up the school and asked them to remove my daughter and they did — so glad this was raised by Lee Hanson so I could be informed.
After I did that, the next day my daughter’s friend’s mum did the same. People will follow our lead as we act in good conscience.
I was a teacher in Launceston up until 10 years ago and have sat in on many of these sessions. It used to be really good — sad what has happened.
But I know the presenter can ad lib and go off script as much as they want, especially answering kids’ questions. I can see it could easily be corrupted.
Parent (Mum) 3: — Cherie Michelle Halkett
This comment from a very concerned mum, Cherie Michelle Halkett, was shared in response to our posts about Helen Joyce at the CASC Summit:
“This troubles me deeply. Both my kids and I are Autistic, and without doubt, as a child — under the circumstances of my household alone — I would have been very confused about this. I’m thankful my kids are old enough to have missed the early interventions of these ideologies in primary school. However, they are most definitely confused by what goes on around them as teenagers.
I am honest, respectful, and give as much appropriate information as I can about what I believe and why — particularly to my older daughter, who has friends affected by these lies. I have been following Helen’s work for some years and believe that without these voices, including this organisation (which I have come to know from Sal Grover’s brave and outrageous experience), we would be getting nowhere in this country.
There is much further to go, and believe me, some Hobartians will not be welcoming either… I know Posie Parker had a rough time travelling here. I am so proud to know we have a voice here.
I know some schools in this state are forcing girls to accept boys in their change rooms. It is alarming that we cannot have a proper debate or discussion. The Sex Discrimination Act needs to be dealt with and amended ASAP.
Thank you again for your work. So many Autistics are particularly vulnerable, and most everyday Tasmanians do not even know about it.”
Parent (Mum) 4:
Mum mentioned that after the lesson given by FPT GUP, some kids aged 11–12 were talking about sex positions. When the mum asked the teacher about it, she said she didn’t hear anything but that if kids ask, then they have to explain it.
The concerned mother contacted the school to request access to the teaching materials for the Growing Up Program (GUP).
She received only general information pages and was directed to the Family Planning Tasmania website, where she was unable to find any additional information.She expressed frustration at what she described as the gatekeeping of information around a program being delivered to children in public schools.
Below is the information the school provided about GUP:
Parents (Mum) 5:
The school nurse mentioned that some kids are born in the wrong body — she said this to Grade 4 students.
The mum and daughter didn’t feel comfortable with the comments made by the school nurse and decided not to attend the sex and development programs offered at their primary school.The mum also mentioned that all toilets have been converted into unisex single cubicles. Her daughter is now avoiding using the bathrooms, describing them as “gross” and saying that “boys pee all over the seats and walls.”
Parent (Dad) 6:
Collegiate recently notified parents that the school will no longer be using the Growing Up Program resources from Family Planning Tasmania.
Instead, the content will be delivered by the school’s own health and physical education staff.
Parent (Dad) 7 — Chris Bowditch
Dad Chris Bowditch writes:
“When my wife was a teacher before we had kids (our eldest is now 9½), her school transitioned a Year 1 boy into a girl. That was with parental involvement at least. But it was all driven by activists, and there was nothing she or any of the staff could do about it.
Fast forward, and when we sent our eldest to school, by the time she hit Prep she was being indoctrinated into the Rainbow cult at her Government Primary School.
There’s no question that Working It Out Tasmania and the State Government Education Department would also love to take after their Victorian counterparts and transition kids — setting them on a pathway to unimaginable harm without the involvement of parents who actually love their kids and want to protect them.
It is unbelievably outrageous that governments and activists encourage this to happen to our kids without parents’ knowledge or involvement. But there’s no question it is happening and will continue to happen.
We’ve encountered the Rainbow cult twice in our only two interactions with state government schools over a 10-year period in Tasmania. We’re now Education Department refugees, unable to access our right to a free state education because it’s not safe.
Just imagine how much worse it must be in Victoria.”
Women Speak Tasmania thanks the parents who have shared these experiences.
If you are a parent with a story or concern about the Growing Up Program or other educational content in Tasmanian schools, you can contact us confidentially at