Three breakthroughs for Australian men and boys

... on men's health, boys' education and suicide prevention

Firstly, for the public and political recognition of the issues facing men and boys. Kellie Sloane has spoken about the health disparities facing males, and the need to support our “lost boys”. She is the newly installed Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales, the most populous state of Australia. Credit to the Daily Telegraph newspaper and the NSW Liberal Party for elevating this topic, and for speaking up on behalf of men and boys...

Thank you Kellie Sloane, kudos to you and your team. 👏👏 We are all in this together… Flourishing families and healthy communities crucially depend on having men and boys who thrive.

Secondly, on the schooling and development of our precious boys. The federal opposition’s education spokesman Julian Leeser has called on the government to hold a parliamentary inquiry into boys’ education, as the education gap between the two sexes continues to grow...

“New Coalition education spokesman Julian Leeser – who was included in this masthead’s recent national education power list – addressed the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) parliamentary forum on Thursday, clearly signalling the Coalition’s education agenda.

Mr Leeser said he was worried boys could be “left behind by our education system”.

“I am concerned about trends and outcomes we have been seeing in relation to education for boys,” he said.

“Boys trail girls in every NAPLAN literacy assessment – reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation – in every age group.

“Average achievement of boys falls short of girls in every NAPLAN domain except numeracy.

“By year 9, in writing, there is a 37-point gap between the performance of boys and girls – which roughly equates to 1-2 years of learning.”

Mr Leeser said the gap existed in higher education too.

“By last year, 37 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 74 had a degree at bachelor’s level or higher, compared with 30 per cent of men in the same bracket.

“If you drill down into the 25-34 age bracket, 41 per cent of men, but 54 per cent of women, have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

“It is fair to say now that not only are Australians better educated in general than they were 30 years ago, but that women are better educated than men.”

Mr Leeser said these discrepancies were cause for a parliamentary inquiry into boys’ education to “get to the bottom of the issue”.”

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/education/schools-hub/opposition-education-spokesman-julian-leeser-calls-for-inquiry-into-boys-education-and-demands-unis-undergo-soulsearching/news-story/c67332a79a025b84788da3720a103f25

Thirdly, for the first time Labor members of parliament have taken time to recognise the Zerosuicide Community Awareness Program. The display of 2,500 empty shoes has been taking place each year since 2022, to mark the number of male lives lost each year to suicide. During 2024 male suicide numbers in Australia increased by 5% while female numbers decreased by 2%. We now have 76.5% of suicides being men and boys, over three-quarters. The programs and funding are not effectively preventing the largest group of suicides, being male… We’ve had the commemoration, and now we need effective action to bring these horrific numbers down and to hold onto our precious men and boys.