The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, says he “wholeheartedly” supports a push to outlaw gay conversion practices in the state, despite the premier, Dominic Perrottet, refusing to say whether he would support a ban.
As Sydney prepares to play host to the WorldPride festival beginning this week, the powerful crossbench MP Alex Greenwich has made a ban on the practice a condition of his support in the event of a hung parliament after the March state election.
Kean said on Wednesday that while he hadn’t seen the details of Greenwich’s bill to outlaw the practice, he said he supported “the concept”.
“I support the concept wholeheartedly,” he said. “What we’ve said is we’ll look at the bill but I support the concept to ban gay conversion therapy.”
The comments come after Perrottet on Tuesday refused to offer his personal view on whether he opposed the practice, saying only: “We need to deal with these issues in an understanding and tolerant and sensitive way.”
Perrottet said he had yet to consider the Greenwich bill and that it would be “a matter for our cabinet”.
But on Wednesday Kean was more forthright, referring to his outspoken opposition to Katherine Deves, the unsuccessful Liberal party candidate in the seat of Warringah during the federal election, who caused controversy because of her comments about transgender athletes.
“I think people know where I stand when it comes to standing up for vulnerable people,” he said. “We saw that in the transgender athletes debate.”
Despite Perrottet refusing to publicly back a ban, Kean is not the first NSW Coalition minister to come out in support of outlawing the practice.
Last week the multiculturalism minister, Mark Coure, wrote on social media that “I absolutely stand by” Greenwich on the issue.
“It is time this appalling practice is cast out of our society,” he said.
While some religious groups have warned of unintended consequences from a bill to ban gay conversion practices, Greenwich’s bill would allow churches to express a belief or religious principle as long as it is “not intended to change or suppress that person’s sexual orientation or gender identity”.
It would see a person found to have attempted to suppressed or change someone’s sexuality or gender identity face up to 10 years in prison or a significant fine, while complaints could be referred to the state’s Health Care Complaints Commission or police.
Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory have all passed versions of a ban on the practice. Greenwich’s bill, which he has said he will introduce regardless of who wins the election, is based on the Victorian model which passed in 2021.
Labor has previously said it would ban gay conversion practices in NSW if elected next month.
“We should not have a situation where children are being told something is wrong with them and that they need to be fixed,” Labor’s leader, Chris Minns, said on Saturday.
Kean’s comments came while he was in the Liberal-held seat of Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches on Wednesday, where he announced the government would legislate to ban offshore drilling if re-elected in March.
The seat is held by the retiring minister Rob Stokes and the Coalition is facing a challenge from the teal independent Jacqui Scruby.
Kean, the NSW Coalition’s leading moderate voice, has been trying to protect seats under threat from the teals by pushing a series of progressive policies in the lead-up to the election, including an ambitious new emissions reduction target of 70% by 2035.
