But in a sudden “wake up Jeff” moment, the much-loved Wiggles have gone woke.

The addition of band members from different ethnic backgrounds is not at issue. If Wiggles founder and major shareholder, Blue Wiggle Anthony Field AM, hadn’t made a fuss about their ethnic backgrounds, I doubt many would have noticed.

It just looked like four bright new young Australians were joining. And good on them – apart from bringing joy to kids everywhere, becoming a Wiggle is the opportunity of a lifetime.

But what is of concern is the fuss made about so-called “non-binary” characters also becoming permanent members of the team.

Police officer Beaples, a shy hand puppet named Bok and a unicorn confusingly dubbed Shirley Shawn were pointedly introduced as being neither male nor female.

“As society has evolved, we have embraced the need for diversity and inclusiveness and want children all over the world to see themselves reflected on the screen,” Field said in a statement at the weekend.

Everyone wants to be diverse and inclusive, but what does that mean when it comes to children’s entertainment?

“Non-Binary” is of course a term pushed by the political movement which travels under the rainbow flag. Political activists, who have penetrated the academy, the media, schools and now children’s entertainment, preach that gender is fluid.

They preach that just because a baby was born with a penis or a vagina, it doesn’t make him or her a boy or a girl.

The mistake our society has been making for thousands of years has been to allow parents, midwives and doctors to “assign” children’s gender at birth, according to the ideology now animating the Wiggles.

The idea of “non-binary” kicks against the goads of the Biblical order of binaries – male and female, day and night, heaven and earth, land and sea, good and evil etcetera.

Shirley Shawn the unicorn might seem like a harmless, colourful, larger than life character but dubbing him/her (or should I use the politically correct pronoun “they”) non-binary, the Wiggles are now helping the rainbow political movement’s project to indoctrinate everyone from toddler to tertiary level into contested genderfluid ideology.

Before becoming a permanent Wiggle this week, Shirley Shawn made a guest appearance with the Wiggles in a 2020 YouTube video holding an umbrella decked out in the colours of the rainbow political flag.

What is being presented to children is not a neutral position on some of the biggest issues they will face in life

This is a flag that carries several messages:

Marriage is no longer about gender diversity, children can be deliberately deprived of a mother or father, gender is fluid, motherhood is to be replaced with “birth parent”, breastfeeding is renamed “chestfeeding”, the Bible is bigotry and the law should be used to punish those whose speech does not conform with rainbow doctrine.

Parents should be concerned about a non-binary unicorn called Shirley Shawn holding a rainbow-flagged umbrella because what is being presented to children is not a neutral position on some of the biggest issues they will face in life.

The fact that the Christian Democratic Party’s petition urging the Wiggles not to indoctrinate children has been singled out by gay activist journalists at the Star Observer and Guardian is evidence that it has hit a nerve.

“I am trying not to weigh in on this stupid culture war thing they’re trying to start with the Wiggles but it is very funny to me they’re mad a unicorn is non-binary,” tweeted Guardian writer Josh Taylor.*

What the political activists and their friends in the media don’t understand is that mainstream mums and dads everywhere are mad that their boys and girls are being lied to about their gender.

They are watching with alarm the epidemic of confused children presenting at new gender clinics around the nation and being plied with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Their message to Anthony Field is to bring back the agenda-free Wiggles and let kids be kids.

Lyle Shelton is Director of Campaigns and Communications for the Christian Democratic Party. The Reverend Honourable Fred Nile MLC has asked Lyle to succeed him in the NSW Parliament when he retires in November.

*This article originally mis-attributed this tweet to Josh Thomas