Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 2847 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, members have the opportunity to push this legislation through. We know that. But we also have the opportunity to ensure that there is proper consideration of legislation that so fundamentally affects people. It seems to me that adjournment of this debate is entirely appropriate. I could spend significant time debating the issues in the legislation, but that would be inconsistent with the spirit of the way people have conducted this debate. The issue has been about adjourning the debate. What we should do is adjourn it and give people the opportunity to consider the issues in a great deal more depth. Mr Speaker, I would argue that that is an entirely appropriate way to deal with this legislation.

MR KAINE (11.32): Mr Speaker, I do not support the motion to adjourn the debate entirely today. But, in taking that position, I do not believe that the matter should be debated to a conclusion today. There is clearly a continuing interest in the community on the subject. I have been in this place since its inception in 1989 and, as you know, Mr Speaker, I was a member of its predecessor body as far back as 1974. The issue of abortion has been on the agenda in one way or another all of that time.

There are people here today in the visitors gallery who are either pro-life or pro-choice, and those people, I am sure, would like to see some of the issues in this debate resolved, and they would no doubt like to see them resolved in their favour. I am not certain that a debate here today is going to resolve too many of the issues, nor will it resolve them necessarily in anybody's favour. But I think that to simply adjourn the debate and say we are not going to discuss it at all addresses nothing. There are issues that are being raised today that need to be dealt with. They need to be dealt with in this place because there are questions of legality and so on that are currently happening in our community and they cannot continue to be ignored.

I would suggest, Mr Speaker, that there needs to be a debate today, but I am very conscious of some of the matters raised by members of the Opposition. I am very aware - although I received the document only 15 minutes ago - of the comments by our DPP. I am aware that our Discrimination Commissioner has made some comment. That in itself, of course, is not necessarily conclusive. The commissioner can make comment, but it has no particular standing unless the commissioner is making a ruling on a case before her. The fact that she has an opinion at this stage is not necessarily decisive one way or the other.

But the thing that concerns me most - and Mr Moore has already spoken on the issue - is that 10 minutes ago I also received the folder which contains Mr Moore's proposed amendments. I would have to ask the question: How can any of us deal with a piece of legislation when amendments are put on the table that Mr Moore says he was working on all night and the rest of us have not seen? His amendments may be perfectly legitimate and perfectly reasonable, but how do I know? There are many issues that need to be resolved in the mind of every member of this place before we debate the matter to finality.

I come back to the point that I make, Mr Speaker: It is time to get some of the major issues in the question of abortion on the table in this place. The debate on this Bill in principle is perfectly in order so that any of us who have a strong opinion on some aspect or all aspects of the matter can put those matters on the table. I do not really know fully,

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .