Page 2255 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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This means that the laws will not prevent religious leaders and schools teaching the tenets of their faith or providing pastoral care to people who are gay or lesbian or gender diverse and talking with them about religious teachings. The ability to share and discuss religious teachings and counsel is an important aspect of religious freedom. However, this does not extend to harmful practices based on false and misleading promises that purport to be able to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity.
In grappling with these difficult issues, we have adopted a nuanced scheme that offers different pathways to address harmful practices. Firstly, we have criminalised conversion practices conducted on children under 18 and other protected people who have impaired decision-making ability. These groups are particularly vulnerable and may have no choice or control over practices that they are being subjected to. We want to make sure that every young person in Canberra grows up to be proud of who they are and free from practices that would shame and harm them. We need the strongest level of protection for our most vulnerable people. The criminal law will also apply to people taking a child or protected person outside the ACT for the purposes of conversion practices, to prevent our laws being circumvented.
Many advocates have told the government that they want avenues to have these issues investigated and stopped but do not necessarily want to go through a criminal prosecution. We have listened to that feedback as well and we have provided an accessible forum for complaints about conversion practices. Any adult or child who has been subject to a conversion practice or harmed by such a practice will be able to make a complaint to the ACT Human Rights Commission.
The commission already has considerable expertise in discrimination matters and understands the issues faced by the LGBTIQ community. The commission can consider and investigate allegations of conversion practices and can provide a forum for conciliation where the complainant can have their concerns heard and a resolution can be sought. In those situations where a complaint cannot be resolved by the commission, a complaint can be referred to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which can make a binding determination and make orders appropriate in the individual case, including compensation and orders for the practice to be ceased. The Human Rights Commission can also initiate its own complaint process and investigate systemic issues, if these are occurring in our community.
These measures have been carefully considered to take account of the complexities of these situations and to provide ways to prevent harmful practices without unduly limiting religious freedom or legitimate services. I particularly note that, given some of the public commentary we have seen, it is important to recognise that, whilst there is the potential for criminal matters, in this case it is not the starting point, except potentially in the most egregious of cases. I think that it is important to reflect that there are a range of pathways here. While a lot of the commentary has focused on certain aspects of this legislation, I encourage people who are concerned about the detail to look at the full spectrum of the legislation and the care that has gone into drafting it and the way that the government has discussed it in introducing it in this place.
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