The New South Wales parliament has voted in favour of banning conversion therapy after an all-night debate on this issue.
The legislation was passed unamended and will take 12 months to come in to affect. The bill was passed at 6.30am this morning in the upper house with 22 MPs voting in favour, and four against.
Under the new laws conversion therapy will be illegal, and it will also be a crime to take someone out of the state to undergo conversion therapy in another location.
The move leaves Western Australia as one of the few jurisdictions in Australia where the practice is still legal. The McGowan/Cook government has vowed to make similar changes in WA, but rights activists have been frustrated by the lack of action on the issue.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich who led the charge for changing the laws celebrated the political win.
“NSW wakes up a safer place for LGBTQIA+ people with the passage of the Conversion Practices Ban Bill”
Labor’s Penny Sharpe, the leader in NSW’s legislative council, said the new laws sent a strong statement that the harmful practices had no place in New South Wales.
“What New South Wales has done today is to say to our LGBTQ community that you are fine just the way you are and that we will look after you and that we will protect you,” Sharpe said.
“New South Wales is better today with the passing of this legislation.”
Attorney General Michael Daley also welcomed the passage of the legislation.
“Conversion therapy proceeds on the basis that people in the LGBTQ+ community are broken, they need fixing,” he said. “But we like them just the way they are.”
OIP Staff
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