Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

If this was a debate about the position of the TGA we would have had a greater movement of numbers on the amendments that went through. It never was—I think we should be honest about that. This debate on the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of Ministerial responsibility for approval of RU486) Bill 2005 ended up as another debate about abortion. Not only that, it was a debate about closing down the debate on abortion forevermore. It was a debate to close off a loophole to make sure that this chamber does not have to go through the process of testing people on how they deal with one of the most fundamental things we are all here about—the protection of human life.

Mankind comes unstuck when it fails to respect human life. It came unstuck failing to respect it on slavery. It came unstuck when it failed to respect it on fascism. And maybe to a lesser extent it comes unstuck when it fails to respect the life of a human being inside the womb—which is a human being nonetheless and as entitled to rights as anybody else in this room. To move away from and to try to circumvent dealing with the issue by thinking that there is some quasi-moral position whereby if you can get a legislature to say that something is right it therefore becomes morally correct is completely and utterly wrong. It remains morally incorrect. It remains an affront to human life.