No one can deny that there has been an explosion of children, particularly girls, presenting with gender dysphoria.

This is a matter of enormous concern for the children concerned, their parents and friends, schools, and the broader community.

Let me stress that I feel nothing but the deepest care and concern for these children and their families and the greatest empathy for the difficulties that they confront.

Being a parent and raising the next generation of Australians is the most important job in our community and one of the toughest.

Parents deserve all the support we can give them, particularly in this rapidly changing world where we have to confront issues that few experienced when they were growing up.

We need to ensure that those who support parents, including their faith groups and those who provide them with religious counsel, can do so without facing discrimination.

It is deeply disturbing that Christian community groups in particular face discriminatory practices in supporting parents and children confronting gender issues.

Gender dysphoria used to be a very rare condition that affected mostly boys and men. Yet nowadays 70 per cent of those affected are teenage girls.

We need to investigate why this has happened and whether vulnerable children, particularly girls, are being rushed into a diagnosis of gender dysphoria without proper consideration of alternative diagnoses.

In Australia, children as young as 10 years old can be prescribed puberty blockers without any assessment of other underlying causes of gender confusion.

Puberty blockers are marketed as ‘safe and reversible’ yet there have been no long-term clinical studies of the effects of puberty blockers on long-term health.

What we do know is that they can cause infertility, destroy adulthood sexual function, damage bone density, and impair brain development.

That doesn’t sound safe to me.

And the treatments don’t just stop with puberty blockers. Children can be prescribed cross-sex hormones which disrupt the body’s natural hormone balance and alter bone density, growth, and fertility.

Hormone therapy can affect cardiovascular health leading to changes in blood pressure and clotting factors. Does this mean that children who transition will be at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes? We simply don’t know because the long-term impact of cross-sex hormones on cardiovascular health in transgender youth is still being studied.

Hormones also play a crucial role in bone development and density. Do hormones that suppress puberty or induce cross-sex characteristics pose long-term risks for the bone health of trans children? Again, we just don’t know. These are experimental treatments. There are no guarantees of health and safety.

Are cross-sex hormones associated with an increased risk of cancer? There are no definitive answers because the research is ongoing but studies suggest that boys who transition to girls have an increased risk of breast cancer presumably due to the exposure to female hormones.

The point is how can children as young as ten have any idea of the damage they may be doing to their bodies when we as adults have no idea?

How can anyone suggest that these children are mature enough to give informed consent?

Australians are deeply concerned that children who are not old enough to legally consent to sex can be rushed into gender reassignment treatment.

And it is not just ordinary mums and dads who are worried about what is happening to our children.

Professor Patrick Parkinson of the Law faculty of the University of Queensland has voiced his concerns in this area.

Even more disturbingly, it seems that professionals who raise these concerns may be silenced. Is that the case? Is that what has happened to people such as psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer, a senior staff specialist in the Queensland Children’s Hospital’s consultation liaison psychiatry team?

What we do know is that gender reassignment can have irreversible consequences for children and lead to terrible remorse.

We are already seeing in the UK that around 1000 families have indicated that they will be joining a class action lawsuit against the Tavistock Centre which placed their children on life-altering puberty blockers.

Countries such as the UK, France, Sweden, and Finland have recently banned or are seriously reviewing the use of puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria.

The health and safety of our children should be a vital concern to every Australian.

At the very least, the federal government needs to be advised by the states and territories as to the extent of gender transitioning in the Australian community. Given the experimental nature of the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, data needs to be collected and outcomes carefully monitored.

For all these reasons, I think it is vital that we review the treatment options for children and young people with gender dysphoria in the Community Affairs References Committee of the Australian Senate.

Senator Ralph Babet is a United Australia Party senator for Victoria