Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bowman for his question. I regret to inform the House that over the past few months the half-century-old practice of placing Bibles by hospital bedsides has ceased in large numbers of public hospitals in Queensland and Victoria. I quote again a spokesman from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Victoria. He said they did not have Bibles in each room anymore:

Because we have so many people from different religious backgrounds it is considered inappropriate. It is also an infection-control measure.

I am not for a second saying that director-generals or health ministers in those states are responsible for the Bible ban. I would be quite confident that the Bible ban is the result of overzealous local officials terrified of appearing culturally insensitive. For that reason, I would respectfully refer any such officials to a very intelligent letter from Mr Michael Choi, who is the Labor member for Capalaba in the Queensland state parliament. The letter appeared yesterday in a Queensland local paper. It read:

Tens of thousands of patients find the bedside bible a source of comfort, particularly in times of difficulty, and their families often use it when they visit them.

He went on:

I have been an active participant of the multicultural communities in the last 20 years and not once have I heard complaints about people’s freedom of religion being violated in hospitals and offence taken because of bedside bibles.

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