Northern Territory Halts Public Funding for Youth Gender Treatments

Children in the Northern Territory will no longer receive publicly funded puberty blockers or gender affirming hormones after Health Minister Steve Edgington confirmed the government will adopt a policy similar to Queensland’s suspension of these treatments.

In a statement on Sunday, Edgington said the new approach aligns with decisions made in places such as New Zealand and several European nations. He noted that only a small number of teenagers had been accessing these treatments through the public system.

He said Territory children should grow up free from what he described as practices with irreversible consequences. He added that the government will place its public health focus on adolescent mental health services.

The decision comes after pressure from the Australian Christian Lobby, which submitted a petition in late 2024 urging the government to suspend all medical and surgical transitioning for minors in the NT.

In a letter tabled in parliament earlier this year, Edgington stated that NT Health does not provide surgical procedures for young people with gender dysphoria. He wrote that NT Health offers evidence based clinical support in line with national standards of care for trans and gender diverse adolescents and operates a specialised gender clinic for young people up to 18 years old.