The human rights commission in Australia’s state of Victoria has quietly disappeared its public claim that a parent refusing to support a child’s request for puberty blocker drugs is breaking the law.
Until recently, the website of the Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission stated that such a refusal would be illegal under the state’s draconian Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021.
Asked about the unannounced removal of the claim, the commission’s spokesman said it was done as part of a review of website material about how the 2021 Act applied to parents and children.
The list of “illegal practices” still includes other examples involving parents and children. The spokesman did not answer GCN’s question whether the commission stood by its claim about the legal peril of parental opposition to puberty blockers.
Yesterday in Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW), a proposal to hold a public inquiry into a draft law to ban “conversion therapy” was defeated.
Parliament’s Selection of Bills committee had recommended that the Conversion Practices Ban Bill 2024 be referred for an inquiry, but this was voted down 21-20 by members of the ruling Labor Party, the Greens and the Legalise Cannabis Party.
In parliament on March 13, Attorney-General Michael Daley sought to justify the lack of open public consultation by arguing that the “targeted, confidential” soundings taken by the government enabled “frank discussion and contributions from stakeholders.”
Source: Memory holes and insider policy on conversion law and gender transition