The “religious freedom” bizzo is truly bizarre stuff. Not only does it fly in the face of the strong survey result a year ago, it also flies in the face of common sense and conservative political tradition. It can be attacked from the left, as Rodney Croome has done masterfully here, but it can also be attacked from the right, as per the likes of Andrew Bolt and Rohan Dean who have raised the obvious point that a commissioner of religious freedom (the cornerstone of ScoMo’s policy) could effectively be a judge on what religions do and don’t believe. ScoMo is right out on a limb, I don’t think he has much of a filter about religion in politics whereas most Aussie voters certainly do.

I do want to correct Rodney on one small point – Labor did decide against criminalising “conversion therapy” per se to avoid driving the practice underground, Labor did not do anything to prevent criminal charges being brought against “converters” who assault or harm their victims during the conversion process. I think this position is sounder than simply criminalising it entirely.