Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Roberts for the question and I recall the discussion that we had at estimates and the fact that we requested, from Senator Roberts, some time to go through the information that he tabled in that hearing. I haven't got that information back, but I think the advice given by the chief medical officer—who I was sitting next to—and me was that the data you were using didn't align with the information we had. We hadn't seen a drop-off of that size, which would be quite noticeable. In fact, that financial year of reporting, which incorporated births, actually showed the strongest birth record achieved so far—we had seen more births during that period. I'll have to come back to you, because you tabled some documents in that meeting and the Department of Health took them away. If there's anything further way in which I can advise you, I will do so.