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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 921 ..

Mr Berry: You would not want to upset the doctors. You would not want to upset the obstetricians.

MRS CARNELL: It is not about upsetting the doctors. It is about protecting women who are having homebirths. Without protocols in place, Mr Berry, there is no indication and no commitment that we will have an appropriately qualified and experienced doctor available at the hospital as part of that program.

Mr Speaker, this is not a problem unique to the ACT. At a meeting of Health Ministers that I attended on Friday in Adelaide, I brought up this issue, and every Health Minister in this country explained that they had exactly the same problem. Because of that, I have written to Michael Wooldridge, the new Health Minister federally, and have asked for his help in this area. It appears that the College of O and G nationally has as part of its policy direction a lack of support, to say the least, for homebirths. We as a community and as an Assembly have to find a way through this. There is no doubt about that.

We believe that public homebirths are an important option for women in this area; but it would be very unfortunate to suggest that our whole community midwives program is somehow not a success simply because public homebirths, at this stage anyway, will not be an option for the women involved. Public homebirth is an option chosen by only some one per cent of women who give birth. Even if that number were to double, we would still not be talking about a large number of women involved. I am sure that all members of this Assembly have had letters from women who have been involved in the community midwives project, along the lines of how important and how valuable they found the whole project. I am disappointed that public homebirth would appear, at this stage, not to be an option - as I said to Ms Tucker, unless this Assembly wants to push the issue of going ahead with public homebirths, with no protocols in place, and is willing to take responsibility for the possible outcome.

MS TUCKER: My supplementary question is: What strategy does the Chief Minister, as the Minister for Health and Community Care, have in mind to try to reduce the power of minority groups such as the College of Obstetricians, if we are to get to a position where women in this region can choose to have their babies where they wish to and have the birth publicly funded?

MRS CARNELL: I thought I had already answered that, Ms Tucker; I am sorry. I made the comment that I had brought it up at the Health Ministers conference and that I have subsequently written to the Federal Minister for Health. This is a Federal issue. It is an issue that needs to be addressed at that level. The obstetricians do not have special rules for the ACT; they have them across the country. All Health Ministers are having exactly the same problems. They are issues that need to be addressed; but they need to be addressed with all the Health Ministers, including the Federal Health Minister. My briefings on the issue were that what appeared to be consultations and what appeared to be an approach that was working in the ACT, bringing all of the stakeholders together and working up a set of protocols, were progressing well and that public homebirths would be a reality in the ACT. It appears that, at the last moment, the obstetricians have chosen to go along with their Federal college, and I think that that is extremely unfortunate. But, again, if this Assembly chooses to force the issue and is willing to take the consequences, so be it.

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