What’s Wrong with Tasmania’s Conversion Practices Bill

Published at AP, the Australian Presbyterian online journal, Emeritus Professor Patrick Parkinson AM shares his concerns with the proposed Tasmanian bill –

“…The Bill is being proposed by people who believe that there is a serious problem in the Tasmanian community that can only be addressed by some of the most draconian legislation ever to be introduced into an Australian Parliament. However, the evidence that there are still conversion practices in Tasmania today is very weak. No-one is claiming that the old unethical conversion practices used decades ago by some health professionals are still being practised. No credible allegations have been made that people have been subjected to abusive therapies to change their gender identity.

When a law creates a lot of uncertainty, it has unintended consequences. This law will create a chilling effect on the provision of mental health treatment for vulnerable young Tasmanians. It will also cause difficulties and expense for businesses and for organisations that involve volunteers. The problems in this Bill are not minor and cannot be fixed by amendment at committee stage. They go to the very heart of what the Bill is trying to do. …”

– A long and important contribution.

Photo thanks to Anglican Media Sydney.

Ed Sheeran proves Trueman Right: We all live in Marx’s world now

Tim Challies in Canada observes:

“I haven’t listened to much of Ed Sheeran’s music. In fact, I’ve listened to it just enough to determine that it’s really not my thing. This means that what I am writing today doesn’t come from a Sheeran fan or a Sheeran hater, but from someone who knows him only by reputation—a reputation that, until recently, was as a pretty good guy.

But Ed now finds himself in a heap of trouble. …”

– Read it at challies.com.

Canada’s MAiD Regime: How We Became a World Leader in Assisted Death — and How Christians Should Respond

“Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) regime has undergone one of the most rapid expansions of any assisted dying system in the world since it was legalized in 2016. Originally introduced through Bill C-14, MAiD was limited to competent adults suffering from grievous and irremediable medical conditions whose natural deaths were “reasonably foreseeable.” However, successive legislative changes and evolving clinical interpretation have broadened eligibility while reducing procedural safeguards.

Today, MAiD accounts for roughly one in every 20 deaths, meaning Canada has the second-highest rate of assisted deaths in the world. …”

– A sobering article from Ray Jennings at The Gospel Coalition Canada.

Keep your word, Premier

“Representatives from Anglican churches across Sydney and the Illawarra have urged the NSW Government to amend guidance issued under the State’s conversion practices legislation, saying it breaches election promises.

The Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 prohibits practices intended to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Bishop Michael Stead, who led negotiations with the Government two years ago, warned that advice published by the Attorney-General’s Department effectively erased protections for voluntary prayer and pastoral care. …”

– Russell Powell reports at SydneyAnglicans.net.

We want to commend Christ without compromise

“When the Apostle Paul asserted his rights as a Roman citizen, he wasn’t standing on pride – he was clearing a path for the gospel. That same strategy drove discussions at Sydney Synod this week as members confronted rising threats to freedom of conscience. …”

– Russell Powell reports from Sydney Synod.

The Joy of William Wilberforce

Paul Barnes reminds us of a key man in recent world history, and of some who influenced him –

“In 1786 Edmund Burke, the renowned orator and politician, was sure that the abolition of the slave trade was a fantasy – that it stood no hope of being accomplished. We might find this surprising, and think it would be obvious that something as horrendous as the capturing and selling of people should be abolished. Thus, it is difficult for us to understand just how impossible the abolition of the slave trade looked.

Although he was certainly not the only one against the Slave Trade, William Wilberforce has rightly taken primary place as the man who achieved the impossible. But how did Wilberforce achieve the impossible in a world that looked down on his faith and what he was trying to achieve? …”

– Read the full essay at AP, the national Presbyterian journal.

Image: Painting of Wilberforce by Anton Hickel.

Päivi Räsänen’s address to the Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention

Member of the Finnish Parliament Päivi Räsänen, who was banned from travelling to the UK to be at the Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention addressed the gathering via video on Thursday.

Her 14 minute address is important viewing – and also most encouraging for her clear testimony.

Update:

It seems she has now been given permission to travel – just after the event took place.

Christian Finnish parliamentarian blocked from entering UK to discuss free speech at religious liberty conference

From the Alliance Defencing Freedom International –

“A Finnish parliamentarian has been blocked from entering the UK to give an address on freedom of speech at a conference this week, following her criminal conviction for ‘hate speech’ by Finland’s Supreme Court.

Longstanding Christian politician Päivi Räsänen, who is a member of the Finnish Parliament’s ‘Friends of the United Kingdom’ group, was due to give a talk in person this week about freedom of speech, at a religious freedom conference.…”

– Read the continuing saga. (Bold formatting added.)

Preaching Politics

At AP, the Presbyterian journal, David Robertson addresses a challenge faced by preachers –

“The lady was quite insistent on speaking to me. She wanted to tell me what was wrong with my sermon. ‘I was going along fine until you brought politics into it, and then I switched off.’ ‘What politics did I bring?’ ‘When you started speaking about gender issues.’

We had been looking at Psalm 12 and talking about how there is no one who speaks truth, and how in today’s society we are increasingly living by lies. As well as mentioning the lies told in the church, I’d spoken of the lies told in the society, and given five examples of each. One of these is the lie that you can change gender, and that gender is mutable, purely a social construct. I referenced the upcoming census in which that is taught, but it is a lie, and it is a harmful lie.

Was I bringing politics into the pulpit? And should I have avoided doing so? There is a real difficulty here. The world has changed. …”

– Read it all here.

Confusion over the Religious Question on the Australian Census — Michael Stead and Mark McCrindle

An important and timely episode from The Pastor’s Heart –

“Answering ‘Anglican’, ‘Catholic’, or ‘Baptist’ on the Census isn’t a test of church attendance.

Before filling out your form, hear researcher Mark McCrindle, and Bishop Michael Stead discuss

  1. What the Bureau of Statistics is actually measuring.
  2. Why writing your specific denomination helps community planning more than generic labels.
  3. How census data impacts real-world support—like hospital, prison, and military chaplaincy. …

The Bureau of Statistics definition of religious affiliation is simple: it’s the faith group you associate with, even if that differs from your active practice or participation.”

– Watch here.

Related:

Count us in! – SydneyAnglicans.net.

Kirralie Smith- transgender vilification and sport

Associate Professor Neil Foster writes –

“I have previously written about the case of Kirralie Smith. Ms Smith is part of an advocacy organisation, Binary Australia Ltd, which advocates for sex-based rights, especially for women, and sometimes posts about biological males who have been allowed to compete in women’s sport. Stephanie Blanch (and Riley Dennis) were mentioned on the website of Binary and elsewhere online in this context, and then claimed that this amounted to ‘transgender vilification’ under section 38S(1)(a) of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1975 (“ADA”). The plaintiffs in the original litigation were each described by Deputy Chief Magistrate Freund as a ‘transgender woman’, and were both born biologically male.

In the earlier proceedings (judgments linked in my previous post) Smith was found to have committed vilification, ordered to pay a total of $95,000 in damages to the two plaintiffs, and found liable for costs. An appeal was lodged, and the NSW Supreme Court (Rigg J) has now handed down a judgment granting leave to appeal in some respects, but mostly dismissing the appeal grounds: see Smith v Blanch; Smith v Dennis [2026] NSWSC 879 (24 July 2026) (Blanch and Dennis Supreme Court Appeal, ‘BDSCA’). Smith remains liable to pay $95,000, is forbidden ‘from publishing on social media or otherwise anything relating to the defendant[s] to the same or similar effect as held to be unlawful vilification in [the previous] Local Court proceedings’ – see BDSCA [261], [262]. She also has to pin a notice about the proceedings ‘on all social media pages and websites over which [she has] control, including Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter) and the website of Binary Australia’, for 3 months. (See Annexure A to BDSCA for the content.)

In this post I will aim to explain the basis for the court’s decision. As will be seen, I think there may be grounds for a further appeal. …”

– Read it at Law and Religion Australia.

Giggle v Tickle — further response on “special measures”

Associate Professor Neil Foster writes about back-and-forth arguments on Giggle v Tickle –

“The debate around whether a women-only app can exclude those born male is continuing. The decision of the Full Federal Court in Giggle v Tickle holds that it was unlawful for Sall Grover to exclude Roxanne Tickle from the ‘Giggle for Girls’ app.

I posted a critique of the decision on this blog. Professor Paula Gerber later argued, in a post on the ABC Religion and Ethics website, that the decision is correct. I then published a comment on the ABC site re-iterating my reasons for thinking that the decision is wrong, and critiquing Professor Gerber’s initial comment.

Professor Gerber then posted again on the ABC website (‘PG Response 1’), suggesting I was wrong to refer to possible religious freedom issues. I responded…”

– Read it all at Law and Religion Australia.

Calls for Finnish free speech campaigner Päivi Räsänen to be deplatformed

From The Christian Institute in the United Kingdom –

“MLAs have called for the former Finnish MP, dragged to court for quoting the Bible, to be barred from speaking in Stormont due to her biblical views.

Following reports that Päivi Räsänen was invited to talk at a ‘Faith in the Public Square’ event in Stormont, associated with the Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention, Naomi Long, the Alliance Party leader, wrote that Räsänen would “bring the Assembly into disrepute” by being there, and called for her to be deplatformed. …

Räsänen said that she was no longer confident she would make it to the conference in Northern Ireland in August as her electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to enter the UK was cancelled. …

American author Rod Dreher stated: ‘Päivi Räsänen, an elected European lawmaker, cannot travel through Heathrow Airport on the way back home, on orders of His Majesty’s government. Why? Because she is a convicted hate-speech criminal, for quoting the Bible in public. That’s where we are.’…”

– Read it all here.

And see earlier, related posts.

Disdain and hostility: What I witnessed at the Church of England’s General Synod

“Every five years (called a quinquennium), the Church of England elects its General Synod, which is essentially the church’s equivalent of the House of Commons.

And as this quinquennium came to an end, it felt as if the sun was setting on the Church of England as a whole.

I am an outsider. I am not a Church of England member.

But I am a Christian, and I believe wholeheartedly in the Christian faith that the Church of England has historically upheld and still claims to do so today.

I attended General Synod for the first time to support Rebecca Bensted from the Christian Legal Centre and our Core Issues Trust/X-Out-Loud allies as we held a fringe event to explore the ramifications of a ‘conversion therapy’ ban, and highlight the importance of the gospel message of change, repentance and regeneration.

And I was astounded by what I saw. …”

– From Christian Concern, Holly Baines reflects on her experience at the Church of England’s General Synod.

CofE General Synod Private Member’s Motion affirming intimate same-sex relationships narrowly defeated

From The Church of England Evangelical Council –

“A Private Member’s Motion seeking to affirm that committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationships are compatible with Christian discipleship was narrowly defeated at this week’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod in York.

The motion, proposed by Professor Helen King and amended by the Very Revd Christopher Dalliston, was debated on Monday 13 July as part of the Church’s continuing dialogue around marriage and sexual ethics. …”

– News from CEEC. Emphasis added.

Next Page →