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So-called conversion therapy is set to be outlawed in NSW, with those found guilty facing up to 10 years in prison if a new bill passes.

Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is set to become the fourth jurisdiction in the country to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’. If successful, the law will punish those helping gender-confused youth with up to 10 years imprisonment.

The ‘Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2023’ was tabled in the NSW lower house last Thursday by activist-politician Alex Greenwich. Greenwich is an independent and openly gay MP, and was one of the key leaders of the Yes campaign for same-sex marriage in 2017.

Similar bills banning help for people with unwanted sexual attraction became law in Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria in 2020.

When the 2017 same-sex marriage debate took place, Mr Greenwich readily dismissed the No campaign’s concerns about the future of free speech and freedom of religion as “red herrings”.

Should We Also Ban Cruelty to Unicorns?

Following the precedent set in other states, Mr Greenwich’s bill insinuates a blatant falsehood — namely, that harmful “conversion practices” are in use in Australia.

As Mercator editor Michael Cook wrote last week in response to the tabling of the bill:

Loose talk about “conversion practices” conjures up electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, exorcisms, ice baths, aversion therapy and so on. There is no evidence of such practices having occurred in Australia for decades. A bill banning them is like a bill banning cruelty to unicorns. It might come in handy if [a unicorn] were discovered in a forgotten valley in the Blue Mountains. But since animal abuse is already covered under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, even then there would be no need for fresh legislation.

The legislation would strengthen an LGBT conveyer belt jurisprudence, whereby social institutions are unrestrained from grooming young people into the rainbow gender cult, while all attempts in the opposite direction are outlawed.

The Illiberal Provisions of the Bill

The provisions in Mr Greenwich’s bill should be of grave concern to all Australians. 

The bill attempts to entrench in law a tenet of woke secularism that most people of faith — and many people with no religious faith — would reject outright. It seeks to “affirm that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is not broken and in need of fixing”.

If passed, the law would impose a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 10 years for anyone found to “intentionally engage in change or suppression practices that negligently cause serious injury to an individual”. “Serious injury” is defined as anything that is “substantial and protracted” — allowing almost any words or actions to be interpreted as incriminating behaviour.

Even if a person has sought help and engages in the so-called “conversion therapy” as an enthusiastic participant, the person accused of helping them can still be convicted. “It is not a defence,” the bill explains, “that the individual consented to the change or suppression practice”.

Additionally, if a parent or other concerned adult tries to circumvent the NSW law by taking the gender-confused person to another state to receive help, they face “imprisonment for 2 years”.

Contact Your Local Member

Mr Greenwich’s Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2023 is as illiberal as it is misguided. As noted by Michael Cook:

Mr Greenwich has based most of his inflammatory assertions on research from Latrobe University, notably a 2018 report called “Preventing Harm, Promoting Justice: Responding to LGBT conversion therapy in Australia”. Its claims were based on first-person narratives from 15 people. It’s impossible to know how reliable these witnesses were.

Mercator has provided a comprehensive fact check calling out the falsehoods in Mr Greenwich’s bill here.

Residents of NSW are encouraged to contact their local member and express their thoughts on the proposed legislation.

Image via Unsplash.