Page 2223 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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This Labor-Greens bill has the potential to send well-meaning parents and teachers to jail. The Labor Party and the Greens should not be using their majority in the Assembly to push through the criminalisation of parents and teachers. This legislation is far too important to ram through the Assembly in just 14 days. Other jurisdictions have contemplated and considered these issues for many, many months.
Growing up presents many challenges. Children and adolescents face confusion about who they are and their place in the world. This often includes asking questions about their sexuality. Children and adolescents depend on the care and support of trusted adults, especially parents, teachers and others, to help them in this journey. Under this legislation there is no room for a child to safely question or explore their identity with their parents unless it is in just one direction.
In addition to the regular challenges of childhood and adolescence, gender dysphoria is a condition some Canberrans face. This bill will mean the only support they can receive from parents and teachers is active encouragement to pursue a transition. If a parent attempts to take the child outside the ACT for support, they could be charged with an offence for that too.
Despite what the co-sponsors of the bill have said, the bill affects the ability of religious organisations or schools to teach the tenets of their faith. Again, we come back to the problem of the vague definition and who will decide what constitutes a prohibited act.
The Canberra Liberals support the stated aims of this bill—to protect children and vulnerable members of our community from harmful conversion practices. We support that in principle. We do not support criminalising parents and teachers who have loving and compassionate conversations with kids going through challenging times. Families need support, not sanctions.
The Canberra Liberals will be moving reasonable amendments to include in the legislation the comments made by the bill’s co-sponsor about religious freedom and support for parents and teachers. We will also seek to refer this bill to a committee of the next Assembly so that it can be thoughtfully considered. We are happy to do that after the vote in-principle so that the intentions of this place are clear—that we of course stand united against harmful conversion practices.
Sending it to a committee, where expert advice can be sought, will mean we can all have a much better informed discussion about the best way forward. I very much hope Labor and the Greens will support these important amendments. I reiterate: the Canberra Liberals stand against harmful conversion practices. They are abhorrent and we stand in unity with the government on that.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for City Services, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Recycling and Waste Reduction, Minister for Roads and Active Travel, Minister for Tertiary Education and Minister for Transport) (12.12): This bill introduces a prohibition on sexuality or gender identity conversion practices. Conversion practices are based in the ideology that LGBTIQ+ people are broken or unnatural, and these practices purport or seek to fix people to become or express
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