A decision by the shadow cabinet of the Liberal Party to ultimately support a bill banning gay conversion therapy has exposed divisions in the Victorian opposition.
A leaked email, obtained by The Age and sent to MPs on Monday afternoon, outlines the Liberal Party’s strategy to deal with the controversial proposal. They will, in effect, support the change by choosing not to oppose it in State Parliament but will move amendments during Thursday’s upper house debate.
In a tense meeting of shadow ministers on Monday, the majority of frontbench MPs supported the plan, knowing the amendments, such as asking for the proposal to be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee, were doomed to fail.
Several upper house Liberal MPs told The Age they were prepared to challenge the decision of the shadow cabinet in the party room meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning, with conservative MPs saying they feared losing support from conservative branch members or that the process had been rushed.
In the email, the Liberal Party refused to explicitly state to its MPs that the party supported the bill, fearing a collision course with a handful of MPs who have been vocal about their opposition to the proposed laws.
The bill is intended to criminalise gay conversion practices, meaning psychiatrists, counsellors or people of faith who intend to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity could face a fine of up to $10,000 and 10 years in prison if their actions caused serious injury.
The gay conversion therapy bill has exposed fissures within Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien’s party room.Credit:Joe Armao
While the majority of shadow cabinet members supported the plan, three MPs who were in the meeting told The Age that Forest Hill MP Neil Angus argued against the decision to support the ban, citing concerns from religious groups. Mr Angus’ position has support from a handful of upper house colleagues who told colleagues they would cross the floor if they were denied a free vote.
Muslim and Catholic community leaders joined forces to take out newspaper advertisements on Tuesday to express “profound concern” about the bill.
“Unfortunately, this bill doesn’t just ban outdated and insidious practices of coercion and harm, which we firmly reject,” Islamic Council of Victoria president Mohamed Mohideen says in the advertisement.
“This bill also criminalises conversation between children and parents, interferes with sound professional advice, and silences ministers of religion from providing personal attention for individuals freely seeking pastoral care for complex personal situations.
“It includes ill-conceived concepts of faith and conversation, vague definitions and scientifically and medically flawed approaches.”
The legislative council is scheduled to debate the bill on Thursday. It is expected to pass with the support of the Labor government and crossbench MPs Fiona Patten, Samantha Ratnam and Andy Meddick.
Justice Party MPs Tania Maxwell and Stuart Grimley, as well as Liberal Democrats MPs Tim Quilty and David Limbrick, have revealed in recent days they will oppose the bill.
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien, while publicly insisting on Monday his party harboured only technical concerns about some parts of the bill, has struggled to bridge the gap between his party’s most conservative MPs and the rest of the party room.
“The problem isn’t with banning gay conversion therapy, because I don’t know anybody who supports that,” he said.
“We can get this done. We can get gay conversion therapy banned, which I think everybody supports, but let’s do it in a way that doesn’t have a whole lot of unintended consequences.”
A party room meeting late last year to settle the opposition’s stance on gay conversion therapy laws resulted in a decision to withhold a public position, which allowed the bill to pass the lower house.
If a similar position resulted from Tuesday’s meeting, it would cause “significant tension” among MPs who want the party to strongly denounce gay conversion therapy, according to two Liberal MPs who commented on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss internal matters.
“Any delay, even technical, is a ruse to cover up for the actual opposition in the party room. It’s a tactic,” said one MP.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes: “These views won’t be tolerated in Victoria, and neither will change or suppression practices.″Credit:Joe Armao
More than 30 religious leaders from such faiths as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism have written to Premier Daniel Andrews expressing “strong and unequivocal opposition” to the bill.
Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli will lead a religious prayer walk against the proposed laws on Tuesday. He is expected to be joined by Conservative Liberal MP Bernie Finn, who is one of the MPs expected to oppose the bill.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said: “LGBT people are not ‘broken’ and they do not need to be ‘fixed’. These views won’t be tolerated in Victoria, and neither will change or suppression practices.
“We consulted closely with survivors, LGBTIQ+ organisations and religious organisations on the legislation to make sure it is effective in stamping out abhorrent change and suppression practices once and for all.
“The new laws strike the right balance between protecting people from the serious harm caused by change or suppression practices, while respecting the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”
Writing in an opinion piece for The Age, crossbench MP Andy Meddick, who describes himself as the “proud father of two transgender children”, argued in support of the criminalisation of gay conversion practices.
“My children are perfect. They do not need fixing. Nor do any other children or adults who do not fit an often religiously held belief that gender is binary only,” he wrote.
“The role of anyone, be they a parent with religious beliefs, an institution, anyone, when someone comes before them and tells them who they are, is to say: ‘I love you, I see you, how can I support you?’ There is no other answer.”
Queensland and the ACT have already outlawed conversion therapy, but the Victorian bill goes further, also targeting “prayer-based practices” that attempt to change or suppress sexuality or gender identity.
In 2018 a branch of the Victorian Liberal Party linked to conservative federal MP Kevin Andrews, who recently lost a preselection battle for his seat of Menzies, pushed for the party to debate whether the Health Act should be amended so that health practitioners could offer counselling “out of same-sex attraction or gender transitioning” to patients who request it.
Then state party president Michael Kroger had the motion pulled from the agenda of the party’s state conference.
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