Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was attempting to make positive commentary about the contribution of Senator Steele-John when I was rudely interrupted by somebody from the House who obviously isn't up to the standard of debate in the red chamber! However, as a former English teacher with an Irish Catholic family background, the lift of the language of the lyrical appeals to me and I heard that in Senator Steele-John's contribution. But the fact is—and we should remember this when we are dealing with this piece of legislation and all the amendments that we are seeking to advance—that, if we actually rely on the scientific evidence that is available to us today, it is a blank sheet.

For five years this has been going on in the UK and, for whatever reason has been advanced—and I know that families in the UK would have had the same level of hope that Senator Steele-John has just put on the record today—hope is not a strategy and desire is not science. Our job is to be not just purveyors of hope but deliverers of solid legislation that provides sufficient protection to the Australian people. If senators take the time to read the report that was put together under the chairmanship of Senator Askew, who I have to say approached this whole issue with a very open mind, the recommendations that are being advanced here tonight as amendments will do good work, in my view, to improve the quality of what is undertaken in this country and to provide protection to Australian residents who, as Senator Steele John said, will be suffering already despair, sorrow and the loss of a sense of what their lives might have been like not too long after the birth of a child who was much longed for.

So I caution against being captured by a discourse of hope and call on you to be hard-headed enough to deal with the facts and the scientific reality that, after five years, there are no reported live births in the UK. How many families have been taken on a journey of hope that has delivered nothing? We don't know. I hope there is hidden evidence. I hope there is hidden data. I hope that there are families to report on. But I can't make legislation on things I cannot see and a hope that is, I think, sadly displaced and misplaced.