A parent talking to their own child should never be a crime. A quiet prayer should never be a crime. Advice from a pastor, a priest or a trusted counsellor should never be a crime. In Victoria, they now can be.

The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 was sold as a shield against real abuse. Nobody defends coercion or cruelty. But this law reaches far beyond that. It sweeps up ordinary prayer, honest pastoral counselling, and a mum or dad having a private conversation with their own child about faith or sexuality.

That is the problem. The law treats a family kitchen-table talk the same way it treats genuine harm. It puts a loving parent in the same frame as an abuser. That is not justice. It is overreach.

This is not about defending anyone who hurts a vulnerable person. Real abuse is already wrong, and other laws already cover it. This is about a law so broad it turns everyday faith and everyday parenting into a legal risk.

Parents are not the enemy. A parent guiding their own child is doing exactly what parents have always done. A person who asks for prayer, or seeks counsel from their own faith, is making a free choice. The state has no business criminalising it.

The demand is simple. Repeal the parts of this law that criminalise prayer, counselling and a parent talking to their own child.

I will fight to repeal the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 where it treats ordinary religious practice, pastoral care and private family conversation as crimes.

Here is what repeal means in practice:

• A parent can talk to their own child about faith and sexuality without fear of the law.
• Prayer is not treated as a criminal act.
• Pastors, priests and counsellors can offer honest, requested guidance.
• Genuine abuse stays illegal under the laws that already cover it.
• The state stops policing private conversations it has no business policing.

These are not radical ideas. They are the basics of a free country: families raise their own children, people practise their own faith, and the law goes after real harm, not honest conversation.

A parent’s love is not a crime. A prayer is not a crime. A private word between a mum, a dad and their child is not a crime.

Sign the petition. Repeal Victoria’s Change or Suppression law.

Add your name  to repeal the parts of this law that criminalise prayer, counselling and a parent talking to their own child. Then share it with a friend, a parent or a neighbour who believes families and faith should be left in peace.