The Australian Christian Lobby released a statement today criticising the Victorian Liberal Party for appearing to want to “avoid voting on the Andrews government’s [LGBTQAAI+] ‘change and suppression’ bill which undermines free speech and parents’ rights in unprecedented ways.”

The ACL accused the Classical Liberal-Conservative opposition of being “too scared to stand against the grossest attack against freedom-based values in Australia’s history.”

ACL’s managing director Martin Iles said, “one must ask what has become of the party of Sir Robert Menzies.”

Iles reminded politicians and bureaucrats on both sides that Government had:

“…no business whatsoever deciding what people can pray for, or how they pray; Government has no business whatsoever getting minors onto irreversible hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers without parental consent.”

Both the ACL and Caldron Pool have pointed out why the bill’s proposals are problematic, and how they promote harm rather than any alleged good.

According to the ACL:

“The bill would make a parent into a criminal and a domestic abuser, at risk of 10 years in prison, purely because they don’t want their young gender-questioning child to undergo irreversible hormone replacement therapy. This bill [also] specifically names prayer as a criminal offence, also punishable by up to 10 years in prison.”

These facts are backed by Mark Powell and Murray Campbell’s insightful independent analysis, which outlined a ‘plethora of problems’ that will have a wide-ranging impact on Christians and many others not aligned with the “agree with the LGBT, or else!” jackboot juggernaut.

To allow such a downgrade of civil liberties under the faux banner of civil rights is blatantly totalitarian.

Caldron Pool firmly stands with the Australian Christian Lobby, concerned Church leaders, community groups, and civil liberties advocates in urging the Victorian Liberal Party and crossbench to reject this bill.