At 6:30am this morning, the Conversion Practices Ban Bill 2024 (NSW) was passed by Parliament after an all night sitting - despite the legislation not coming into force for 12 months.
Earlier in the day the Legislative Council had turned normal parliamentary practice on its head, with the referral of the bill to a committee for review being overturned after the bill was already referred under the normal process. All amendments to the bill proposed by the Opposition and cross-bench parliamentarians were defeated. The bill was passed a mere four sitting days after being first tabled - rushed law is rarely good law.
The desire to avoid scrutiny of the bill is self evident in these processes. Despite there being plenty of time before the legislation commences, the Minns Government did all it could to avoid the normal parliamentary scrutiny.
The coalition of religious schools, Adventist Schools Australia, Australian Association of Christian Schools, Christian Schools Australia, and Islamic Schools Association of Australia, strongly opposed the Bill in the form presented. We circulated two media releases, The Minns Government’s Conversion Practices Ban Does Not Protect Parents or Young People and Parents and Schools Need Certainty, which were ignored by the media, but noticed by parliamentarians. We also wrote to parliamentarians outlining our concerns with the bill as did many schools.
This is an extremely disappointing outcome. While Equality Australia is not tested on its claims that this legislation 'will save lives', attempts to raise issues relating to the shifting medical advice regarding gender identity continued to be ignored by the Government.
We will be preparing a detailed briefing on the bill and its impact on schools in due course.