Page 3804 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 27 August 2008
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I will repeat it:
Then I tried to weigh objectively the range of views that I was presented with.
Mrs Cross went on:
Let it be enough now for me to say that I have heard enough sad tales from all quarters—tales of grief, or ignorance, of deprivation, of desperation, of shame—to persuade me to support the legislation.
I will come back to Mrs Cross in just a moment. But of all the views and points that I have mentioned here today, it is the most recent that has caught my attention. It came from a member, like me, that was not part of the debate in 2002. In the Canberra Times on Saturday, 16 August 2008, there was an article headed “Dr Jon v The Boy Avenger”. For those that missed it, it was a reference to the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Between the caricatures of the leaders, there was some text about Zdenko Seselja. The text said:
He is against abortion but says that a Liberal government in the ACT would not seek to recriminalise it.
With that sweeping statement, the boy avenger has politicised the issue. Perhaps it was unintentional; nonetheless, he did. The boy avenger is on the public record, in a special piece about the election, speaking for his party, that they would seek not to re-criminalise abortion in the ACT. We only have to go back to the previous debate to see that the Liberal Party, apart from Helen Cross, voted against pro-choice. We all know what ended up happening to Mrs Cross. During her speech, she even said:
I am aware that I am the only Liberal member voting for Mr Berry’s bills today and, to be honest, this makes me more than a little nervous.
Mr Smyth said, in a previous debate in 2002:
Until you prove to me that it is safe for women to undertake an abortion, I will resist all that you attempt to do in this place.
I ask through you, Mr Speaker: has it been proven to Mr Smyth, since the debate, that the procedures are safe? Are you now in agreement with the majority of the Canberra population who are in favour of a woman’s right to choose? If not, if you are so strongly opposed to pro-choice, are you going to support your leader who stated in the Canberra Times on Saturday the 16th that a Liberal government would not seek to re-criminalise abortion?
I do question the motives of those opposite as to why, after such a firm position on the issue in previous debates, they will not pursue re-criminalising it if they ever form government. Did the Leader of the Opposition’s fellow members know that the leader was out in the press, speaking on their behalf on this issue? Or could this be an indication that the Leader of the Opposition understands that the majority of Canberrans support the type of progressive reform that the Stanhope Labor government has pursued over the last eight years?
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