Page 813 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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I believe that the vast majority of the Canberra community supports a woman’s right to access these services legally and safely. I accept that it is a moral issue for many people, but we have had this debate; we settled it 15 years ago in the ACT when abortion was criminalised. Our community is better off with these services available. Canberra women can feel assured that I and other committed Labor members will always fight for the right to safe, legal, appropriate and accessible reproductive health, abortion and termination services in the ACT.
I support Ms Cheyne’s motion and I thank her for bringing up this important matter, celebrating the strength, determination and talent of Canberra women and further promoting gender equity in our lives.
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Transport and City Services and Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research) (11.57): I thank Ms Cheyne very much for bringing this motion forward today and for raising such important matters for our community. I welcome the opportunity to speak with my colleagues on this motion today, the week after International Women’s Day. As Minister for Health and Wellbeing I am proud of the quality of women’s health services, in particular, that we provide to our community. These services take into account the fact that women still face a number of social and economic barriers to their full and free participation in society.
I would like to recognise that these issues affect not only those who identify as women but also non-binary individuals. I am proud of the local women across our community who have taken on leadership roles to advocate for and promote women’s health issues. Organisations such as the Women’s Centre for Health Matters are working to ensure that Canberrans are aware of and can contribute to the health choices available to them.
The ACT Labor government has a strong track record of delivering health services that are responsive to the needs of women, like other Labor governments around the country. We are proud to have a world-class women’s hospital, the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, initiated under Chief Minister and Health Minister Katy Gallagher.
There has been a significant increase in the number of births in the ACT as the population of the ACT and surrounding New South Wales region is growing. As a result, we are experiencing a high demand for birthing services and, correspondingly, hospital and community-based services for women, babies and children. In response to this, the government has committed to expand the Centenary hospital, as Ms Cheyne also acknowledged. This investment in the order of almost $70 million over four years will provide for the development, design and construction of new services at the Centenary hospital, which means even better care for the women of Canberra and its surrounding region. This project will provide a planned, comprehensive and structured response to having more babies.
The Centenary hospital is the tertiary centre for specialist maternity services in the ACT, and the growing demand for maternity services will be met with the provision
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