Tasmania’s conversion practices Bill and our churches

By Matt Garvin

A proposed Tasmanian law raises questions about how churches teach, pray and care for people. The Greens’ Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026 aims to stop practices directed at changing, suppressing or eradicating a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These terms concern who someone is attracted to and their sense of their own gender.

Greens Leader Dr Rosalie Woodruff released a draft Bill in June 2026, which Tas Baptists and many others responded to. Following public feedback, a revised Bill was introduced into Parliament on 10 September. It has received its first reading and is not yet law. 

We are not aware of conversion practices taking place in our churches, and other heads of churches have told me they are similarly unaware of such practices in their churches. That does not prove they never happen, nor does it dismiss anyone’s experience. But we want clearer evidence of the current practices this law is seeking to address, and a clear line between harmful conversion practices and ordinary Christian teaching and pastoral care.

• The meaning of “suppressing” needs to be clearer. The Bill uses the term but does not separately define it. When does helping someone live according to their own faith become an effort to suppress their sexuality or gender identity? 
• Religious teaching is protected, but there are limits. The Bill says that expressing a religious belief or principle, including in prayer, stating what a religion teaches, or saying that a belief ought to be followed does not, of itself, amount to a conversion practice. These are important protections. However, the boundary becomes less clear when someone seeks personal pastoral help to live according to those beliefs. 
• Asking for help does not settle the issue. The Bill can apply whether or not a person consents to the conduct. An adult may, for example, freely choose celibacy—not having sex—because of their Christian convictions and ask a pastor to support them in that decision. We believe the Bill should make clearer what support a pastor can safely provide in circumstances like these. 
• A single act could potentially qualify. The definition does not require a repeated course of conduct. This means that, in principle, a single conversation or prayer could fall within the prohibition—but only if it meets the full definition of a conversion practice and is not covered by the Bill’s protections or exclusions.
• Someone other than the person receiving care can make a report. A report to the Conversion Practices Commissioner does not have to come from the person directly affected. The Commissioner has safeguards and discretion about how reports are handled, and a formal investigation involves an additional seriousness threshold. Nevertheless, a church or pastor could become involved in a regulatory process even when the person who received the pastoral care has not made the complaint.

The revised Bill significantly narrows the main criminal offence. For that offence to apply, a person must intentionally engage in a conversion practice, the practice must cause physical or mental-health injury, and the person must have been negligent about whether that injury would occur. That is an important improvement. 

However, the Bill also contains a separate general prohibition on engaging in a conversion practice. That prohibition does not itself require proof that anyone has been injured. This distinction matters. It means that conduct could potentially breach the general prohibition even when it would not meet the much higher threshold required for a criminal offence. For example, a single prayer could potentially fall within that prohibition if it met the full definition of a conversion practice and was not protected as an expression of religious belief.

Tas Baptists will always support protecting people from coercion, abuse and harmful practices. We also want legislation that clearly protects safe, freely chosen pastoral care and good-faith guidance from parents.Our concern is that, despite improvements to the revised Bill, some of those boundaries remain insufficiently clear. Churches, pastors, parents and individuals should not be left guessing about where lawful Christian teaching and pastoral care end and prohibited conduct begins.

The Bill remains listed by the Tasmanian Parliament as a current Bill, with its first reading recorded on 10 September 2026