Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is no wonder that these patients, these expectant mothers, these mothers who have been through the process of homebirthing and who have experienced the benefit of having a trained midwife in attendance, are so frustrated at the approach of this government, when you see the minister’s petty interjections in relation to this speech. I cannot believe that a Labor government with the people who sit opposite, who champion the cause of choice, of the rights of women, are effectively taking away the choice of those women around the country. It is no wonder that there has been revolt in the Labor Party caucus against the minister’s decision.

This is a bad outcome for those women who have a choice. Some people agree with homebirthing; others do not. But the reality is: they have a choice to make, and the fact that this government has taken that choice away is a very sad indictment of many people within the Labor Party—not just in this place but in the other place as well. I do not care what people in the Labor Party are saying in private to homebirth mothers; they are saying absolutely nothing in public. It is worthless for them to continue to show sympathy and to say that they are going to advocate behind the scenes on behalf of homebirth mothers when not one Labor female or male MP in this place, or Senator in the other place, has spoken out publicly against this minister’s stance. I know that there are dozens of people within the Labor Party who are talking to homebirth mothers in their electorates, in Canberra and in other parts of the country, and they are saying to people in those conversations that they do not agree with what this minister is doing. She does not have the support of the caucus and yet somehow this has been rammed through on them. It is a pathetic example of representational politics by the Labor Party in this country that many of those women are not speaking up.

Whether the Prime Minister has gagged them or whether the health minister has gagged them, if these people are going to stay true to the convictions that they commit to in private then they should be coming out to provide public support to their statements and they should be talking against this particular provision by Nicola Roxon. That is the important part: this provision is by Nicola Roxon, who has championed herself as some sort of advocate of nurses yet she is saying to midwives who want to continue in the practice of homebirth that effectively they are going to be fined $30,000. That is completely outrageous.

In looking at the outcomes in this bill, I have spoken to the positive outcomes and I have addressed the issues which I think need to be addressed. We now have the benefit of the Senate inquiry report, and we will certainly be looking at the option of moving amendments until this government gets it right. Until this government gets it right, we will continue to advocate on behalf of those thousands of mothers around the country who are currently being ignored by Labor members across the country. We will listen and stand up for their rights. We will stand up for choice. We will listen to their concerns because those concerns are not limited to a handful of people. Even people who do not agree with homebirthing say that those who choose to take up such an option should have that right into the future. That this health minister would take that away certainly underscores some of the difficulties not just around this policy and around the bill that is before the House but around the general approach to the issue of health in this country.

This is a government that say one thing one day and do something completely different the next day. They have not altered outcomes for the better in health over the course of the last 18 months. All Australians know, particularly in relation to public hospitals, that the situation has got worse over the last 18 months. The situation has got worse for our good, hardworking doctors and nurses around the country. They are working in conditions in hospitals—

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