Victoria’s controversial Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 introduced some of the most severe criminal penalties in the country – including up to 10 years’ imprisonment – for conduct said to suppress or change a person’s sexuality or gender identity.

The Act raised serious concerns about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience for medical professionals.

Now, the government has ignored the legal requirement to review the Act after two years. This requirement is built into the Act itself, and a review should have commenced no later than February 2024.

Concerns about the breadth and impact of the legislation are not new, nor are they confined to religious organisations. When the Bill was introduced in 2021, both the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists formally warned the government that the drafting was too broad and the sanctions too severe. They raised the prospect that doctors and psychiatrists could be exposed to criminal liability simply for providing professional advice that might lead a patient to pause, reconsider or decline irreversible medical interventions.

Those warnings were dismissed at the time. They are now proving prescient.

While there have been no prosecutions under the Act, there are growing reports of a “chilling effect” on doctors and therapists who are reluctant to treat patients with gender issues. They fear that anything other than automatic “gender-affirmation” might be considered “conversion therapy” and attract severe penalties under the law. In the Children’s Court decision Re Devin, Justice Andrew Strum heard evidence that a parent had contacted “hundreds” of therapists who were unwilling to treat children with gender issues because of the Act.

Justice Strum said the father of a 12-year-old child whose mother sought a prescription for puberty blockers “gave evidence that … he had contacted very many (in fact, he said, ‘hundreds’ of) therapists who were not interested in treating children with gender issues, because of the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act and like pressure”.

A paediatrician gave evidence that, within Victoria, she was unaware of practitioners willing to offer non-affirming or exploratory approaches, for fear they would be accused of engaging in conversion practices.

Community support group Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress have described the impact in stark terms. They say the law has “stripped away mental health support from the vulnerable young people who need it the most”, leaving families unable to find clinicians willing to engage in careful, evidence-based exploration of a child’s distress. Teenagers themselves, they report, now avoid therapy altogether, having been led to believe that anything short of automatic affirmation is unlawful.

These are not abstract concerns. They go to the availability of healthcare, the integrity of professional judgment, and the ability of parents to seek help for their children without fear.

At HRLA, we monitor these laws closely. We regularly advise organisations, churches and individuals navigating complex and uncertain legal terrain created by poorly drafted legislation. We support the free speech and religious freedom of all Australians – including the freedom to speak truthfully, to offer compassionate care, and to live faithfully according to conscience, without the shadow of criminal sanction.

Even if the Victorian government does not intend to repeal the Act, it does need to obey it. An independent review is a legal requirement, designed to ensure the Act is operating as intended.

The Victorian government has been delaying a review for nearly two years. That review is now urgent.