Liberals tussle over gay conversion laws as religious leaders split

Divided opinion was also evident in the Liberal Party, which is due to decide in a party room meeting on Tuesday if it will offer a conscience vote on the issue.

Ahead of the meeting, former federal Liberal vice-president and influential party figure Karina Okotel – a religious hardliner – emailed all Victorian Liberal state MPs suggesting it should be legal for people to attend prayer groups to reverse their sexuality but illegal for extreme medical measures such as shock therapy to be used to achieve the same ends.

The Andrews government laws would ban both methods.

In response to Ms Okotel’s email, Liberal frontbencher Tim Smith sent a reply-all email saying: “You should have been expelled from the Liberal Party, and your poorly timed intervention provides me with the opportunity to ask Michael O’Brien why you are still a member of our party.”

“Michael, do explain why this individual is still a member of our party, with your factional allies’ support? Heaven help the lot of us.”

The challenge by Mr Smith comes as Mr O’Brien is already facing criticism from within the Liberals over the party’s direction. The decision will be difficult for a party which values religious freedom but whose MPs are on the record saying they do not agree with gay conversion therapy.

Victoria’s legislation goes significantly further than a similar law passed earlier this year in Queensland in that it bans certain religious practices. The Queensland legislation only covers health settings such as counselling, psychotherapy, or support groups referred by healthcare practitioners.

The decision to also include harmful “religious-based practices” and “prayer-based practices” in the bill – such as exorcisms, deliverance or spiritual guidance designed to overcome same-sex attraction – has alarmed proponents of religious freedom.

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Some faith leaders, such as Archbishop Comensoli, argued that the government was going too far by legislating on prayer at all. But as Parliament prepares to debate the bill this week, other faith leaders and academics have thrown their support behind the bill and rejected the claims of government over-reach.

Pastor Teash said churches “don’t often understand the consequences of the actions that they engage in,” and that churches need to come to terms with that if there’s going to be any change.

Collins Street Baptist church pastor Simon Holt agreed, taking aim at the assertion that several church leaders have made in recent days – including Archbishop Comensoli – that they do not support “coercive” conversion practices, but that including prayer in the legislation was a bridge too far.

“This seems to me to demonstrate an extraordinary lack of self awareness,” he said.

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“While it is true that many churches have never sanctioned the more extreme practices of aversion or shock therapy, their consistent messaging that those people of a homosexual orientation are broken and must suppress, deny and repent of their sexuality has been far more consistently damaging and over such a long period of time for so many of its own people.”

Marion Maddox, a leading authority on the intersection of religion and politics in Australia, said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had “jolted” the notion that what happens within religious settings should be kept private.

“We have the diehard view that what goes on behind church walls should be outside the jurisdiction of the state, and then we have the other view: that what goes on inside church walls can cause enormous harm,” she said.

Under the proposed changes, anyone found trying to suppress or change another person’s sexuality or gender identity faces up to 10 years’ jail or fines of almost $10,000 if it can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that their actions caused serious injury.

The government insists that sermons and other prayer-based practices that do not specifically target an individual will not be captured in the legislation.

However, if for example, a same-sex attracted person sought spiritual guidance from a faith leader who then tried to suppress or change their sexuality through regular prayer sessions or conversion “therapy”, a jail term or fine could be imposed for any negligent physical or psychological injury caused.

Victoria’s human rights commission will also get new powers under the law to deal with complaints that fall short of the criminal standard, and to launch own-motion investigations into systemic issues as part of a new civil scheme for victims.

The bill could prove challenging in the upper house, where Labor does not control the numbers, and much will depend on the Liberal party room’s decision.