Tasmania

Greens' Conversion Practices Bill

The Conversion Practices Bill is not limited
to “coercive and harmful” practices

The Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026 is not limited to conduct shown to be coercive or harmful. Its definition can cover conduct undertaken with consent and without proof of injury.

The criminal offence has an injury requirement. But that requirement does not extend to the bill’s general prohibition, reporting scheme or every other provision.

Coercion and consent

Clause 5 expressly states that conduct can be a conversion practice

whether with or without the person’s consent

The definition includes conduct intended to change, suppress or eradicate someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, or to induce them to do so. It does not require force, threats or coercion.

A person freely seeking advice, and remaining free to reject it, can be included in this definition. Whether a particular conversation is covered is completely unclear, but is not limited to coercive situations.

Harm

Conduct can breach the bill’s general prohibition without anyone having suffered injury, or injury even being a possiblity. Clause 10 prohibits engaging in a “conversion practice” without any reference to harm or potential for harm.

The reporting scheme also extends beyond conduct that meets the criminal threshold. Reports can lead to targeted education, voluntary facilitation or Tribunal proceedings. Serious or systemic matters meeting the investigation criteria can lead to investigations, enforceable undertakings and compliance notices.

Churches and other organisations would also be forced to prevent anything caught in the broad definition of “conversion practice”, even if it was consensual and caused no harm.

Child Abuse

The bill would also make prohibited conversion practices directed towards children count as child abuse under specified civil laws. Schedule 2 changes the Civil Liability Act 2002 provisions dealing with an organisation’s responsibility for people acting on its behalf. Schedule 1 makes a related change to the Limitation Act 1974.

These amendments refer to the broader definition, not the injury-based criminal offence. They add no separate requirement to prove harm, or risk of harm, before the conduct falls within those child-abuse definitions.