Page 341 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 7 March 2006
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MR STANHOPE: I withdraw that. You have been intellectually dishonest in your dissembling and your lack of admission of your motivation.
Mr Stefaniak: I take a point of order on that, Mr Speaker. I would like a ruling.
MR SPEAKER: Withdraw that, too
MR STANHOPE: What, “intellectually dishonest”?
MR SPEAKER: I think so.
MR STANHOPE: That surprises me. I withdraw it. I am surprised.
MR SPEAKER: It indicates an intention to be dishonest and I think it should be withdrawn.
MR STANHOPE: I concede. Returning to the point, the difficulty you have in this debate is that you are not so much interested in protecting pregnant women. Your whole motivation has been to change the way in which the criminal law operates and the way in which the law operates in relation to a foetus. You want to rewrite those definitions that apply in the ACT. You want, effectively, to repeal section 10 of the Criminal Code. But you never say that. You never stand up and say, “Let’s rewrite section 10 of the Criminal Code.” You have not done that. You did not do it for seven years in government. You have not done it during this debate.
You have never stood up and said, “What we want to do is to rewrite section 10 of the Criminal Code. We want the law to stop operating as it currently does in relation to human beings from the moment of birth. We want the criminal law to operate from the moment of conception.” That is what you are saying. That is your argument. That is your position. It is quite simple. The law currently operates from the moment of birth insofar as it applies to a person. You wish to repeal section 10 of the Criminal Code to read, “This act”—in other words, the Crimes Act—“operates from the moment of conception.” That is what you want to do, be honest about it, and everything that flows from that. You wish to separate a foetus from the mother. The law currently does not and you wish it to do so. Just be honest about it and be honest about all of the flow-on, knock-on implications of it. Just be honest.
Mrs Burke: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. You have asked the Chief Minister not to imply or impute that we are dishonest. I take offence at that and he should withdraw it.
MR STANHOPE: I did not.
Mrs Burke: You did. You were saying that we are dishonestly operating.
MR SPEAKER: Order! It is not a point of order.
MR STANHOPE: I was talking about the Liberal Party.
Mrs Burke: Do not speak for the Liberal Party on this, Mr Stanhope.
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