Coalition senators swing behind Pauline Hanson’s push for her own trans inquiry

The majority of Coalition senators have swung in behind One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson’s bid for a fresh parliamentary inquiry into medical treatments for transgender children, less than a week after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton cautioned his MPs to steer clear of culture wars before the federal election.

Eighteen Coalition senators – including frontbenchers Bridget McKenzie, Michaelia Cash and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and MPs Alex Antic and Matt Canavan – on Monday voted for Hanson’s motion to launch an inquiry into “experimental child gender treatments” and the need for a ban on gender-related medical interventions for children under 18.

Three Coalition senators – Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Richard Colbeck – joined with Labor, Greens and independent senators to successfully defeat the motion.

While Monday’s vote failed, it risks dragging the Coalition into culture wars on trans issues and making them appear defiant of Dutton, who last week told his party room the opposition needed to campaign on the cost of living and could not be distracted by anything else.

It also highlights Dutton’s challenge in clawing back socially progressive former Liberal seats, now held by teal independents, where voters have been unimpressed by political debate targeting transgender children.

A review of medical treatment for transgender children is already underway in Australia with bipartisan support.

Health Minister Mark Butler last month asked Australia’s peak medical research body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, to develop new national guidelines for medical treatment, including puberty blockers.

Butler commissioned the review after the Queensland government announced it would pause the prescription of gender transition drugs for young people. “These issues should be nationally consistent, and in my view, should be driven by the pre-eminent authority,” Butler said in late January.