Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Finance and Debt Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

These amendments do not create an assurance; they create a wedge. These amendments bring into this chamber an issue on which there are deeply held beliefs around the parliament. It is a conscience issue. The way in which this issue has been introduced takes the debate to a base level. You know full well that if you bring the abortion debate up then a bit more diligence is required than you have shown with the process you are following here. I am disgusted by the mechanism of this. An assurance has been given. We have actually been doing the footwork—asking people and getting the assurances across parliamentary lines on this issue. I find it one of the more base forms of politics to bring up an issue that you know full well, Senator Fielding, is held as an absolutely primary issue by so many people around this place. I really question the motives you have at the forefront of your mind in bringing this issue forward in this manner.

It is quite clear—it has been disclosed by the minister and also by Senator Stephens. You are asking what we are to do if a person commits a criminal act—that is, if the doctor lies about the motives that they have put forward. I suppose that if the doctor lies they go to jail or they lose their registration. What are your motives on this one, Senator Fielding? What are you trying to do here today? What is your motivation? Is this a sincere and honest approach on which you have spent a period of time lobbying people, discussing the issues and going through the proper mechanisms and processes? Have you done that, Senator Fielding? Or have you just brought in a highly emotive issue without actually consulting or doing the footwork? What is your primary motivation? Can you tell the chamber about all the people that you have discussed this with? Can you tell the chamber about all the lobbying you have done on this issue? Or is this merely a political ploy of yours? If it is, I think it is absolutely disgusting.