Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:50): (1535) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Attorney-General and is related to the review of the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021. When we debated this act in the last term of Parliament, I consulted with many groups about it and gave it a lot of consideration, choosing to oppose it out of concerns that its scope was so broad that it limited or risked limiting many legitimate activities and consensual interactions. I have also been contacted by several groups and individuals who expressed concerns about the operation of the bill and how it might be impacting other policies and general mental health care for young people. By this I mean I have had reports of youth mental health professionals that will refuse to continue working with any children or young people that raise issues of gender distress or gender nonconformity out of concern that they may inadvertently fall afoul of this legislation.

One of the aspects that I did support in the bill was a statutory review. The legislation included a requirement for the Attorney-General to initiate a review into the legislation two years after it came into operation, with the review to be concluded within six months of this review commencing. I asked several questions of the previous Attorney-General about this review, with a response in March 2024 indicating that careful consideration was being given to the timing of a review and a response in June 2024 indicating that finalisation of the review was underway. My request for the Attorney-General is firstly to provide an update on the progress, but the main request is, if this review has not commenced yet or is still underway, to ensure that there is an opportunity for public submissions for relevant stakeholders and interested parties to participate in the review.