Transgender outrage Branch slams Colbeck over vote ROBERT INGLIS ONE of the biggest Liberal Party branches in southern Tasmania has delivered a stinging rebuke of the state’s most senior federal Liberal MP, saying its members are in “sheer disbelief” that he refused to back a controversial Senate motion condemning medical treatment for transgender children. The Tasmanian Liberals’ Howrah branch, which has about 40 paying members, met on Thursday to discuss its concern over Aged Care Services Minister and Tasmanian Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck’s decision to vote against a motion put by One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, which sought to condemn the use of “experimental and unproven” medical treatment on children experiencing gender dysphoria. The motion, which was ultimately defeated 35-23, called for a “wait-and- see” approach to the issue, claiming that “70-90 per cent of young people’s gender dysphoria resolves itself by puberty”. Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck Senator Colbeck was the only Tasmanian Liberal Senator who did not support the motion, with senators Eric Abetz, Claire Chandler, Jonathon Duniam and Wendy Askew all backing it. In a letter addressed to the five senators, obtained by the Mercury, the Howrah branch blasts Senator Colbeck and praises Senator Chandler for standing against the participation of transgender people in women’s sport. “At a meeting of the Howrah Branch held earlier today, I was requested by branch members to write to you to express … our sheer disbelief and serious objection to the recent conduct of Tasmanian Liberal Senator and Federal Minister for Sport, Senator Richard Colbeck, for aligning himself with Labor and the Greens to vote against the sensible ‘wait and see’ motion proposed in the senate on the 15th of June 2021,” branch president and Clarence councillor Brendan Blomeley writes. “Whilst we acknowledge the Liberal Party is a broad church and government senators were granted a conscience vote on the motion, it is our firm view that Senator Colbeck’s actions are totally out of touch with mainstream members of the Party and the overwhelming majority of Tasmanians. “We write to remind members of the Tasmanian Liberal senate team that you have been entrusted to represent the ideals of our Party and to ensure the interests of our state and nation are appropriately and responsibly represented in the nation’s capital, not to go on an ideological frolic that aligns with the Left-wing culture war warriors.”.