Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Before I place formally on the record the summing-up speech for the My Health Records Amendment (Strengthening Privacy) Bill 2018, I thought it might be useful to comment on some of the contributions by those opposite in the very short time I've been here listening to them—particularly that from Senator O'Neill. Senator O'Neill actually went into the detail and was speaking to the gallery, almost trying to persuade those there. She asked them the questions: 'Is it within your employer's right to know if you're taking contraceptives? Is it your employer's right to know if you had an eating disorder when you were 12 years old?' Wow! Deb O'Neill is the only one who has asked that question and I don't even know why that question was asked! Well, of course it's not! It has never happened, nor should it ever happen. Any suggestion that it has happened in the past or that the circumstance exists where it could happen in the future is a pretty low blow in this place.

I will go on. Apparently, this is all a complete flight of fancy. We had a Senate inquiry. It had three coalition members, four Labor members and two members of the Greens, and other senators had a participating role. The government has listened very carefully. You'd think, from what Senator O'Neill said, that the only reason the government is making any amendments is because of her and that the only reason the government has invested in the extensive education campaign that you've all been listening to is because it was her idea! Well, thanks, Deb! Perhaps she should have a chat to voters in the electorate of Robertson, who were so impressed with her that they threw her out. That's why she's in the Senate.

We should be beyond all this in this place. This is a serious matter, and there are enough things to talk about without making things up. It's really important that we've had a Senate inquiry into this matter. We've listened carefully, and the government has considered it carefully—