Macquarie contributes to a historic parliamentary bill
Professor Tiffany Jones, from Macquarie’s School of Education advocates the NSW Parliament Members on the impact of conversion therapy.
NSW has become the latest state to ban the practice of conversion therapy following a parliament sitting last week. Several experts were invited to advocate and encourage politicians to pass the bill, including Professor Tiffany Jones, from Macquarie’s School of Education.
Professor Jones addressed parliament with details of her research that explores the impacts of conversion practices, noting approximately two thirds of LGBTIQ+ Australians across several of her studies have been exposed to messages encouraging them to suppress or change their gender identity or sexual orientation. Professor Jones also referred to previous research that shows conversion practices are associated with significantly increased risk of mental health illness diagnoses for LGBTIQ+ youth, including three times the amount of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Diagnoses, five times the amount of Schizophrenia diagnoses and considerably higher suicidality and self-harm rates.
“The importance of cross-party support for this bill cannot be underestimated,” says Professor Jones.
“NSW leadership has recognised that conversion messages and practices are pseudoscience and should never occur, and the year ahead spent preparing for the bill to come into effect needs to be used to spread a message of change.”
Professor Jones is a current member of the ARC College of Experts and has spent several years consulting with government on previous drafts of various bills. She has been part of education and LGBTIQ+ expert panels with a range of organisations and community members to help develop the final bill passed in the Upper House. NSW will join Victoria, ACT and Queensland in banning the practice of conversation therapy.
The Hon. Penny Sharpe (Australian Labor Party), Mr Alexander Greenwich (Independent Member for Sydney), Ms Cate Faehrmann and Dr Amanda Cohn (Members of The Greens), The Hon. Emma Hurst (Animal Justice Party), and The Hon. Jacqueline Munro & The Hon. Christopher Rath (Members of the Liberal Party) were among supporters who spoke at length on the importance of banning conversion practices. The legislation will take 12 months to take effect.