21/12/2025
TL;DR, the Crisafulli government is hoping none of us will read this thing, because it straight up does not support their actions. Hell, maybe they didn’t even read it.
Last Friday the Crisafulli government, during a busy media cycle a week before Christmas, released the Vine Review. While the Review is far from perfect, it does not justify the ongoing ban on treatment, but instead highlights the dangers associated with it. It also makes clear that many of the arguments used by enemies of trans young people are inaccurate.
The Vine Review:
- states that puberty blockers are reversible;
- states that regret rates are very low;
- states that none of the trans people consulted in the review process expressed regret over their care;
- states that a focus on child’s rights and agency is integral to modern healthcare;
- states that paediatric medicine is often grounded in “low quality” research;
- finds lower quality evidence for the use of blockers for precocious puberty than for gender incongruence;
- finds “increasing evidence suggesting positive psychosocial outcomes”;
- finds no evidence of widespread or serious harms;
- and states that a continuation of the ban on treatment “carries several risks in terms of the legal, ethical and social considerations”.
Don’t get it twisted, Ruth Vine is no hero and this is not the evenhanded assessment that trans young people deserve. Tune in on January 5th and we’ll run down everything that’s wrong with this 500+ page document, as well as some other things it gets right.
