Western Australia’s Attorney General John Quigley has joked that he underwent his own form of ‘conversion therapy’ when he changed professions from law to politics.
The AG cracked the joke during an exclusive interview with youth focused online radio station Youth Jam on Wednesday afternoon.
The state’s top law officer was explaining why introducing legislation against against conversion therapy and other suppression and change practices was taking considerable time.
Noting that Premier Roger Cook has said that conversion therapy can be hard to define, host Isaac Mulcrone asked Quigley if with his legal background he could give a definition of conversion therapy.
“I was converted.” Quigley replied.
“I was converted myself from defense lawyer to politician.” the AG said laughing at his own joke.
“It used to be good being a defense lawyer because when people asked me questions I could charge them for the answer, but here I am.”
“It is hard to define. Is simply saying a prayer in church conversion therapy, or do you require something more of a compulsive nature?” Quigley said.
“This is the very area that the policy wonks at the Department of Justice are currently preparing papers for me.”
Quigley said that introducing a scheme in Western Australia was taking time because the government had taken onboard feedback from advocates who have stressed that any scheme needs to have both criminal and civil components.
“I’ve sat down with the stakeholders in relation to conversion therapy. There’s two issues here. One is criminalising the practice of conversion therapy. The second is a civil scheme that you can get orders against people for practicing conversion therapy. The civil scheme is much harder.
“In so many cases, it’s the victim’s family that are putting pressure on the family member to convert, and so they don’t necessarily want the police to come and lock Mum or Dad up. They just want a restraining order or something like this.” Quigley said.
Quigley said religious groups was another area where it was essential a civil scheme was in place alongside a criminal aspect as many people would not want to have their priest arrested.
‘Indigenous culture concerns’ in conversion therapy bans
Respecting Indigenous culture is also an aspect the Attorney General says any legislation needs to take into account.
“Quite often at the centre of their culture is sort of at the edges of conversion therapy and the like, because some of them don’t embrace out notions of equity and fairness, and they have things like they’re not allowed to marry outside their skin group and all sorts of things.
“So we’ve got to be very careful that we don’t got charging in and criminalise people we never intended to. They’ve got their own culture
The Attorney General said while he couldn’t currently provide a definition of conversion therapy, he would eventually be able to once the government has worked through the issues.
Laws against stealthing
While the government is unable to commit to adressing issues such as banning conversion therapy and updating surrogacy laws before the 2025 state election, and reforms to the Equal Opportunity Act have been pushed back until the federal government takes action at a national level, Quigley is more confident that laws against stealthing will move forward soon.
Stealthing, the act of removing a condom during sex without a sexual partner being aware of the action, is soon to be outlawed.
The Attorney General said he would be making an announcement in parliament in the coming weeks about updating the definitions of consent.
