On 20 February 2025 during Question Time, I asked the Health Minister to reverse the ban on hormone therapies for young people. You can read my question and his response below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings ("Hansard") here.
Mr BERKMAN: My question is to the Minister for Health. The AMAQ, countless medical experts and community leaders and thousands of ordinary people have openly opposed the LNP's ban on hormone therapies since denying access to this critical health service will cause significant distress and harm to already vulnerable children. Given how time-sensitive these treatments are, will the minister lift the ban to ensure young people can continue to access lifesaving treatment?
Mr NICHOLLS: I thank the member for Maiwar for his question. The position of the Crisafulli government in relation to the delivery of gender services has been made abundantly clear. The member for Maiwar would be well-placed to read both the media releases that have been put out and the reports in respect to the delivery of gender services in Queensland. Let me start at the beginning. Firstly, shortly after being appointed it was brought to my attention—
Ms Pease interjected.
Mr SPEAKER: Member for Lytton, you are joining the list.
Mr NICHOLLS:—that there had been unauthorised paediatric gender services delivered, supposedly, by the Cairns Sexual Health Service. I then spent the better part of a month getting advice in relation to the delivery of those services, which were unauthorised and were not countenanced by the health service executive. They had been progressing since at least 2016. These are services that require a strong multidisciplinary team approach to ensure that not only is there no harm to those children who are being provided with it but also that they are receiving a benefit from it. It became abundantly clear—
Opposition members interjected.
Mr SPEAKER: The minister is directly responding to the question. The interjections will stop. Member for Bundaberg, you are joining the list. Withdraw the unparliamentary language.
Mr SMITH: I withdraw.
Mr NICHOLLS: Unlike those opposite, there is a good and proper explanation for the process the government is taking. It involves a series of unfortunate events that potentially harm children and it involves consent, which is a requirement of this process, where things had not been done properly. That then also raised a broader question. We know this is a contested issue, and it is contested—
Ms Grace interjected.
Mr SPEAKER: Member for McConnel, you are now on the list.
Mr NICHOLLS: It is contested medically across the world.
Ms Grace: Rubbish!
Mr SPEAKER: Who was that?
Mr NICHOLLS: I hear the member for McConnel interjecting 'rubbish'.
Mr SPEAKER: Minister, continue.
Mr NICHOLLS: I hear an interjection and I take issue with it because it is not rubbish. The Labor secretary for health in the United Kingdom has banned the prescription of puberty blockers as hormone therapy for children in both public and private services throughout the country, so if anyone says there is not contested evidence—
(Time expired)