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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 2920 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, nowhere in that set of brochures - maybe the Family Planning Clinic did not send me all of them but I assume they did - does it give any information for somebody who has not quite made up their mind. I believe really strongly that the counselling given is very good and does provide that information. It does ask women whether they have any other questions and provides information about other counselling services if required.

But the package does not give a full range of information. If anybody here believes that the information in it gives women the capacity to make a choice, then I think they had better read it again. What it does is give information to people after they have made a choice. I accept that probably no-one in this whole place agrees with me, but where is the approved independent information package that allows women to make the choice in the first place? From my perspective it does not exist, or if it does exist it certainly is not given to every woman so that she is empowered to make a choice in her best interests.

Mr Speaker, I do not believe that this is a black-and-white issue. I believe that if we do not pass this legislation today there is a risk that in the term of this Assembly we will see in front of us another piece of legislation from that majority of people who have at least claimed to be pro-life. I do not believe that that would be appropriate. It is certainly not something that any of us would wish. If we adjourn this debate, what will happen? We will go through all of this again in March or April. None of us know the way that the numbers will stack up then.

The other option is to fix the Bill now to achieve what I believe could be very desirable outcomes for women who want to make a choice based upon all information, as I think all women do. Mr Speaker, I have been working very closely with Michael Moore and with Malcolm, his very capable senior staffer, to achieve what I believe, if all Michael Moore's amendments are passed, will be a very reasonable outcome. (Extension of time granted) It will also ensure that this issue does not raise its ugly head again in the term of this Assembly. The numbers stack up in favour of the pro-lifers. I do not want this issue revisited. I do believe that a full information package, balanced and independent, would improve the situation for women who are making a very important decision in their lives. If that is what comes out of this debate and Mr Moore's amendments today, then I believe we will have improved the whole situation. Again, I accept that other people will not agree with me.

I will use an analogy. If we were considering whether we should mandate the situation that all people getting prescriptions dispensed in the ACT should get a full suite of information on both the pros and the cons of the drugs being prescribed, would there be a debate? No. Some pharmaceutical manufacturers would have a problem and some pharmacists might have a problem, but generally there would not be a debate, because we rarely debate, at length anyway, giving people more information or balanced information. I believe that in this Bill the information is not balanced, but we can change that. There are amendments on the table that will do that.

Mr Speaker, this is something that means a lot to me personally. In my professional life I spent a very large amount of time getting to a stage in pharmacy where consumer information on medications became mandatory. Information has to be produced by manufacturers. That CMI information has to be approved by a third party and produced at the cost of drug manufacturers. They have to do it. I think that is a huge step forward.

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