Every Life Matters — Health Practitioners Say This Is Happening in Australia Matters of Public Interest
I rise to support this matter of urgency because it is a fact that transparency and the awareness of issues drives change.
We’ve heard from a previous speaker, Senator Canavan, how an earlier inquiry here highlighting some of these issues has driven change in Queensland, and we have seen change in other states on this matter.
Some other speakers are correct that the topic of abortion is not a topic for this Senate for the simple reason that constitutionally it is something that falls within the powers of our state and territory governments, and we see them making laws as they see fit as they have been elected by people in that state.
But the bill that Senator Canavan referred to before, which has been subject to an inquiry through the Senate, sought to use the external affairs power under the Constitution to hold state governments and the actions of medical practitioners to account because of the international treaties that Australia has signed up to recognising the right to life for people and the rights of the child.
So while I’m aware there are many people, many of whom who have emailed my office today, who are hopeful that a successful vote here today will immediately bring about change, that is not the case.
That is not the wording of this motion.
This motion just draws attention to a practice, as we saw from the inquiry in Queensland yesterday, in evidence which has been reported both in print media and on the radio, and highlights that despite the assurances of many—’This is very rare’ and ‘It doesn’t happen in certain hospitals’—practitioners on the ground have said it does happen.
And as Senator Canavan outlined, the consequence for the children, and I will call them that, the babies that are born is that they deserve care.
I will just highlight that the change being sought is not something that is out of the ordinary.
My home state of South Australia has the Termination of Pregnancy Act 2021.
I personally have problems with this act and spoke to the then premier to express my concerns about it. But what they have included in that act is that in part 2, division 1, section 7 it specifically talks about the care of a person born after termination.
It says that nothing in the act prevents a medical practitioner to actually provide care to that person. It says:
To avoid doubt, the duty owed by a registered health practitioner to provide medical care and treatment to a person born as a result of a termination is no different than the duty owed to provide medical care and treatment to a person born other than as a result of a termination.