Secret School Gender Policy Storm, Family First Party Slams Allan Government
Freedom of Information documents reveal that the Victorian Department of Education instructs school staff to withhold information from parents regarding students' gender transitions.
Harry Taruva 
Melbourne - The Victorian Government is facing fierce criticism over secretive public school directives that instruct teachers to actively conceal a student's gender transition from their parents.
Internal Department of Education documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, reveal that school staff are explicitly ordered not to inform parents if a child requests to change their name, pronouns or social presentation at school unless the student grants express permission.
The revelation has triggered an immediate political backlash from the Family First Party, which labeled the policy a direct assault on parental rights and transparency within the state education system.
The controversy deepened following admissions in Parliament by Education Minister Ben Carroll, who confirmed there is currently no formal administrative process for declaring a student a "mature minor" in relation to gender identity choices.
Furthermore, the Department of Education admitted it does not collect any data on how frequently these mature minor declarations are being made by individual school staff.
Family First Legislative Council Candidate, Jane Foreman, said the policy represents a fundamental breakdown of trust between the state and Victorian families.
"This is not progressive education," Foreman said.
"This is a government hiding things from parents about their own children. Parents do not surrender their rights at the school gate.
"They are not the enemy of their children’s wellbeing, they are the most important adults in their children’s lives," she said.
The political row comes amid heightened scrutiny over state spending, with critics highlighting that the Allan government allocated AU$11.2 million to specialised LGBTQIA+ programs in the 2025–26 state budget.
Family First has announced an immediate policy platform ahead of the upcoming election, pledging to completely remove gender identity programs from the government school curriculum.
The party is also demanding the introduction of mandatory parental notification laws for any social transition occurring within educational institutions.
"When I talk to parents about this, the first thing I see is hurt," Foreman said.
"Because they trusted the system. Finding out that the government has been deliberately keeping them in the dark is a gut-punch," she said.
The party stated that its broader educational focus will shift toward redirecting classroom priorities entirely back to core literacy, numeracy and critical thinking outcomes.
