Victorian Parents' Rights Under Attack from Conversion Bans

9 November 2020

Christian schools across Victoria are very concerned about a recent ABC report which says that laws to ban ‘conversion therapy’ will be introduced to the Parliament this week.

According to the ABC report, this new law will go much further than banning coercive gay conversion practices, which are abhorrent, and could include mainstream Christian practices such as pastoral care, counselling and prayer ministries.

“Our parents are concerned that this law could prevent them from freely choosing appropriate spiritual and medical care for their children when dealing with extremely sensitive issues, such as gender dysphoria,” said Vanessa Cheng of the Australian Association of Christian Schools.

“It is outrageous that the Andrew Government would contemplate introducing a law that could criminalise parents, teachers or pastors for encouraging a child to love the body they were born with or teach a faith-based sexuality ethic,” said Mark Spencer of Christian Schools Australia.

Victorian parents should know their values and freedoms are under threat by this new law and we urge the Government to ensure the rights of parents are protected.

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For all media enquiries:
Mark Spencer
Director of Public Policy
Christian Schools Australia
Contact CSA Media


About Christian Schools Australia

Christian Schools Australia is the largest association of Christian schools in the country and has 132 member schools educating over 65,000 students and employing nearly 10,000 staff at 168 locations across Australia. CSA is part of a global ACSI network of 24,000 schools educating in excess of 5.5 million students in over 108 countries world-wide.