Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about gay conversion therapy, a thoroughly discredited practice which is not only damaging but can be deadly. The AMA has been clear in its condemnation, as has the World Medical Association. Given this you would expect senior government members to stand shoulder to shoulder with experts in their unequivocal denunciation. But you would be wrong. Indeed, of the three most senior government members who have been asked, not one was willing to reject this vile practice. Not the federal Minister for Health, not the Deputy Prime Minister and shamefully not even Prime Minister Morrison himself, who just brushed off the question, saying it wasn't an issue. That this man, who prides himself on his moral fibre and purports to represent all Australians, would essentially endorse such a twisted and barbaric activity is utterly abhorrent. We have come a long way recently, but this foul episode shows that we can't be complacent. We must stand up to discrimination and bigotry wherever it appears, especially if it's in our federal government.

I am pleased that the University of Newcastle students association council has signed the Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Survivor Statement, pleading with our governments to stop harming LGBTIQ Australians, and to call for a ban on gay conversion therapy in every state and territory. There's no place for it. If this government won't act, a Shorten Labor government will. (Time expired).