Conversion Practices Ban Bill 2024
Ms Cate Faehrmann: I support the Conversion Practices Ban Bill 2024. I acknowledge the contribution of my Greens colleagues in this and the other place, including Dr Amanda Cohn, who led for The Greens in this debate.
The bill has been a very long time coming for the many survivors, advocates and organisations who have worked tirelessly to end the practice of conversion—of trying to change or suppress a person's sexuality or gender identity. But it is important to recognise, from the outset, that it has also come too late for so many people who came before us and never got to live a life where they were free to be their true selves, where they could live their lives openly with joy and pride and love who they wanted to love. It has come too late for those people who took their own lives because they were told that they were unworthy, that they were sinners, that their identity was a disorder or that they were sick. Who they really were was denied and they were erased. However, the bill is here now and it is a very good thing.
The Greens have consistently opposed conversion practices and ideologies. We have advocated for a complete ban on so‑called reparative sexual orientation and gender identity conversion practices. Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, the first openly gay member of the Australian Parliament, has openly spoken about how, as a young medical student in Canberra, he struggled with his homosexuality, even consenting to conversion therapy. Yes, he is Christian. He received electric shocks while being shown photos of naked men, not just for one session but multiple sessions. I acknowledge the very heartwarming and excellent contribution by The Hon. Stephen Lawrence, which sounded almost exactly the same as what Bob Brown has described as happening to him. The practice Bob Brown underwent was intended to shock him straight. On the contrary, it almost drove him to suicide. That was a long time ago, in the '60s, yet even today in New South Wales the practice continues—albeit to a lesser extent, as religious organisations have been exposed and challenged over the years and others have simply woken up to how damaging those conversion practises were and are.
I acknowledge the very hard work of those who are here at Parliament House today. Some are in the public gallery, but I understand most of them are here in the Parliament. Hopefully, they will be in the Chamber when this bill passes. I acknowledge the work of Alex Greenwich, who I worked with in this place 13 years ago or something like that on the marriage equality campaign; I also worked on that campaign with Anna Brown. For everybody who has worked so hard and is here today to see this through, I am so thrilled that this bill is before the House. I acknowledge the similar bill Alex Greenwich previously introduced in the other place and the political pressure that has led to the Government introducing the bill we are debating.
Conversion therapy is pseudoscience based on archaic, bigoted ideology that people from LGBTQIA+ communities are broken, disordered and unworthy. It has lasting negative impacts on people's lives, especially so for people of faith. In 2018 a report by La Trobe University, the Human Rights Law Centre and Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria told of the lived experiences of 15 LGBTQIA+ people and their struggle to reconcile their sexuality and transgender identities with the beliefs and practices of their religious community. The report provided a comprehensive history of the conversion movement in Australia, together with legal analysis and recommendations for reform. Since the release of that report, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand have all outlawed conversion practices. However, as with so many other issues concerning sex, sexuality, gender, religion and women's rights, New South Wales is playing catch-up. But here we are, and, as I have said, it is a very good thing.
The objects of the bill are encouraging: to prohibit change or suppression practices and to establish a civil response scheme, and to ensure that all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, feel welcome and valued in New South Wales and are able to live authentically and with pride. However, the Government has weakened those objects with exemptions in the bill that have the effect of ensuring that people, particularly young people, who are part of certain religious organisations, often through no choice of their own, are still able to be subject to homophobic and transphobic sermons and preachings. These sermons and preachings can still have terrible impacts on the mental health and self-worth of people subjected to them, particularly young people coming to terms with their sexuality or experiencing gender dysphoria.
I note the contribution of the Hon. Susan Carter, who talked about religion as a choice and the conversion to religion as a choice. It is not a choice for the 12-year-old, the 13-year-old or the 14-year-old who has to go to that church because their family drags them there every weekend, sometimes every night depending on the faith. It is not a choice, and the bill is protecting those young people from that. However, a significant weakness is that the bill does not protect them from the sermons and the preachings of religious leaders who still say that being sexually attracted to someone of the same sex is sinful. It does not protect them from that, and that is a travesty.
Again, it is good that this bill is before us, but it is a significant weakness because the Government was very quick to allay concerns from some religious organisations in particular and assure them that religious freedom will not be impacted by this bill. They have gone to great lengths to ensure that expressing a belief through sermon, taking offence at religious teachings and seeking guidance through prayer are not included in the bill's provisions. To The Greens, it is a bit unclear as to just how far these exemptions go. We do not support exemptions for religious teachings, sermons or prayer.
My colleague Dr Amanda Cohn will move amendments to hopefully address that. Unfortunately, we know where things are going tonight but we, of course, will do what we can to get that over the line. Religious organisations and private rehabilitation facilities, but largely religious organisations and beliefs, have told LGBTQI+ people that they should pray the gay away. Faith-based practitioners have subjected residents to exorcism and medically abusive interventions, like chemical castration. The Greens believe that these exemptions are completely unacceptable loopholes in the protections that the bill offers, and they should be a significant cause for concern.
I note the politics around, "Don't move amendments. We've just got to get the bill through. Accept the bill as it is." It is extremely disappointing that the community is told that. The community understands the power of those sermons and that if those sermons and preachings can still continue then people will still experience harm. They will still experience those feelings of a complete lack of self-worth, and some of them will still experience feelings of suicidal ideation. The 2018 report on LGBT conversion therapy harms from Anna Brown at the Human Rights Law Centre, which I think has been quoted before in this debate, states:
The law is only one part of the solution, because a ban will not impact on the informal practices among adults that we know are prevalent in Australia's conversion movement, and may drive them further underground in certain faith communities. We recommend a multi-faceted approach implemented in partnership with religious institutions and communities to help, not harm, LGBT people of faith.
Regardless, of what the legislation before us tonight accomplishes, we know that these conversion practices will unfortunately continue. The sermons will continue. We need to be extremely diligent and alert in this place to the real potential of what will happen and what practices will be driven underground.
However, despite the issues that The Greens have identified—and that I think others have identified but have been urged not to make a fuss about; I put that on record—as the key weakness and disappointing aspect of this legislation, it is still a significant step on the path to full equality for the LGBTQIA+ community. The archaic and cruel practice of conversion therapy will be banned through the bill that we hope to pass tonight—or this morning. Survivors, advocates and supporters will be celebrating tonight, or tomorrow when they wake up and hear the news. That is a wonderful thing.
After the celebrations, there will be more to do. There is always more to do. For example, we will need to address the weak self-identification laws in this State, which mean that people are still required to undergo surgery to change their gender on official documents such as driver licences. We need to commit to returning to this place to fix that in the not too distant future and to continue to bring forward legislation to ensure that everyone is protected equally under the law, regardless of sexuality, gender or gender identity.