The Australian Labor Party has rejected a policy proposal to criminalise ex-gay conversion therapy.



The party had originally had, in its draft platform, a policy that "opposes the practice of so-called conversion and reparative therapies on diverse sexuality and genders and seeks to criminalise these practices".

The policy had been welcomed by LGBTI groups, but was a cause for concern for the Australian Christian Lobby, which claimed the policy would result in Christian parents having their children taken away if they seek counselling for them if their child says they are same-sex attracted.

"To group religious beliefs, prayer or voluntary counselling in the same category as coercion, electric shock therapy and bizarre boot camps is dishonest. It smuggles a chilling ideological agenda into the conversion therapy issue," Australian Christian Lobby managing director Martyn Iles said in a blog post.