Page 2632 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 1993
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CITY HEALTH CENTRE - FUNDING OF ABORTION FACILITY
MR HUMPHRIES (10.42): Madam Speaker, I move:
That this Assembly opposes any expenditure from the public money of the Territory for, or in relation to, the establishment or operation of a facility at the City Health Centre for the purpose of conducting abortions.
Madam Speaker, more than a year has passed since the Assembly debated the Termination of Pregnancy (Repeal) Bill and I, for one, cannot think of another Bill which, in the life of this Assembly at least, has aroused such passion in the Assembly or in the community it serves. The debate then was a debate about principle. It was a debate about whether abortions should be allowed to occur outside public hospitals in the ACT. The Assembly resolved by 10 votes to 7 that they should be available outside public hospitals. The motion I have moved addresses the next stage in this debate. It is a dramatically different and, I think, more immediate extension of that debate.
The issue today is not whether abortions are to occur outside public hospitals. The issue is, rather, whether abortions are to be funded from the public purse outside public hospitals. The argument, Madam Speaker, has shifted from principles to priorities. It is not today about the scope of public health commitments; rather, it is about the ordering of those commitments in our public hospital and public health system. Madam Speaker, the view I articulate and have articulated about the principle of abortion is, I accept, the view of a minority of members of this house. It would be pointless, therefore, to restate those moral arguments today. The case I want to put to the Assembly for the passage of this motion is not dependent on that view of abortion. I believe that this motion deserves support even from those who support a right to abortion but who are capable of logically assessing the relative need for an extension of such services to women in the ACT.
Let us put ourselves, Madam Speaker, in the shoes of a Health Minister who is genuinely anxious to improve the full range of health services to the people of the ACT. This Minister identifies a number of areas of deficiency in the ACT's health system, both public and private, but the resources to meet those areas of deficiency are limited. Let us say that this Minister has $100,000 to spend on new initiatives in a particular year. The question is how to spend that $100,000 to make the biggest impact on the city's numerous and pressing health needs. I think the phrase is "how to get the biggest bang for your buck".
Let us look at some of Canberra's health needs as a way of illustrating the point about the range of needs that might be facing this particular Health Minister. Some of those needs could only be described as being extremely pressing. First, nursing home beds. Madam Speaker, nursing home beds in the ACT are in critical shortage. I refer, in particular, to the report of the ACT Legislative Assembly's Social Policy Committee on the accommodation and support services needs of the ageing. I quote from paragraph 9.1 of that report:
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