Dear Deputy Premier Barnett,
Thank you for your reply on 28 August in relation to our correspondence concerning the Tasmanian Greens’ draft Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026.
We most certainly agree with the Government that the Greens’ Bill is both fundamentally flawed and extreme.
Importantly, as you have inferred, the Greens’ Bill intends to criminalise certain speech and expressions of political, scientific, cultural or religious opinion, including opinions held within Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and other religious communities. The Bill also appears capable of criminalising certain conversations within families and in health and education settings. Worse, the Bill establishes what could amount to a quasi-inquisition into speech, based on anonymous complaints made to the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner.
As you pointed out, the Greens’ definition of a “Conversion Practice” is ambiguous. The dangers arising from ambiguous definitions were highlighted in the dossier we personally provided to you, How Gender Policies and Anti-Discrimination Laws Discriminate Against Tasmanians. The dossier contained 29 testimonies presented to you in December 2025 by a delegation of Tasmanians representing LGB Alliance Australia, the Affiliation of Australian Women’s Advocacy Alliances and Women Speak Tasmania, together with parents, teachers and health professionals.
Previously, in January 2025, we also presented you with the WST Dossier on the Impacts of Tasmania’s Sex Self-ID Laws on Women, Girls, Families and LGB People.
From these testimonies and dossiers, you will know that this extreme Bill could have much more serious consequences for the rights of children, parents, LGB people, health and education professionals and, indeed, many Tasmanians. In our view, the Greens’ Bill represents a further attempt to advance an internationally contested gender-ideological social engineering project through legislation.
WST understands that many of the submissions sent to the Greens, and subsequently provided to you, are deeply personal. Many people who have made submissions would not want their evidence made public for a range of reasons, including concerns about privacy, trauma, fear of reprisal, vilification, harassment, employment consequences, economic repercussions, boycotts or adverse consequences within professional, social or community networks.
We therefore consider that a Parliamentary Inquiry into Affirmative Care and Conversion Practices should be established, and that in-camera hearings are essential to provide people with confidence that they can give evidence confidentially and safely.
This is particularly important given the climate of fear and intimidation that many citizens have experienced when expressing dissenting views since Tasmania’s sex self-ID laws were passed.
Thorough Parliamentary scrutiny is crucial for these issues, which continue to affect individual civil liberties, including the right to speak freely, personal safety and, most importantly, social cohesion within our society.
WST respectfully urges your Government to acknowledge and properly consider the extensive, evidence-based documentation that WST has provided to you since January 2025, together with the concerns raised directly with you by other Tasmanian citizens over the years.
In August 2003, the Coalition for Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (CICSA) pushed for a Commission of Inquiry that would ultimately take until 15 March 2021 to be established and would not report until 31 August 2023 — approximately 20 years after the initial call for an inquiry.
Given the existing trauma and harms outlined in the presentations and testimonies provided to you, we urge the Government, as a matter of duty of care, not to delay further.
Tasmanians should not have to endure the consequences and adverse impacts of fast-tracking legislation with such significant implications for civil liberties and human rights, as they have already experienced following the introduction of sex self-ID laws.
We again urge your Government to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into Affirmative Care and Conversion Practices before the Greens’ proposed Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026 is debated.
We believe such an inquiry should include regional public meetings, allowing full and informed discussion and evidence from all relevant stakeholders before any Conversion Practices legislation is considered by Parliament.
We would again be very pleased to meet with you to discuss the issues we have raised and would welcome the opportunity to do so at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Elizabeth Caballero
Retired General Practitioner
President | Women Speak Tasmania