Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for bringing me back to the legislation. Homebirth is a very personal issue and, as I said earlier, my wife and I were very fortunate. We have had two—and my wife plans more—birthing experiences which were very fortunately positive, and we are very lucky. However, others do not have such positive experiences, and they do need the best care available. There is no doubt about that. However, to rule out access to homebirths altogether rather than dealing with an insurance issue was an ill-thought-through decision. I am very pleased that the minister has listened to the concerns. She has undertaken a backflip for a two-year period, and we hope that in that time she will be able to get her mind across how to deal with the insurance issue.

I must say that this is probably the biggest issue which has driven contact to my office since I was elected 12 months ago. We have had more correspondence and contact about this issue than about any other single issue. It is a small group of people who are involved, but they are very passionate about their right to choose. That is something that we on this side of the House support. We support women’s right to choose. It was unfortunate that the government decided not to support that right of choice. We have fought against that and we are very pleased that the minister has seen it appropriate at this point to backflip for a two-year period. We hope that in that time she will be able to get across a better way to deal with the issue of homebirths and the issue of insurance, which is attached to it, and we certainly will have more to say as far as our policy going forward.

I thought I would give a snapshot of the emotion which is attached to this issue. A constituent of mine, Amy Sparshott, wrote to me again on Friday—she has written a couple of times. I think she describes the issue very well. She says:

Homebirth is not something that many women choose for themselves; however, it is important that women continue to have access to this choice of care. The South Australian state funded homebirth programs run from hospitals are a start but are not accessible to most South Australian women due to the strict guidelines and small geographical catchment areas.

My electorate of Mayo is not covered at all. The letter continues:

Midwives in private practice are experts in normal birth. Their skills will be lost once they either cease to work as midwives or find they have to work within a hospital system that is geared towards finding complications and introducing interventions during labour and birth that are not often needed.

That brings me to another reason for homebirths. There is, of course, choice but there is also circumstance. A couple of the ladies who have come to see me about this issue have said that they would never go back to a public hospital because of the experiences they had. So the government can slap a $33,000 fine on this and ban it outright—as the member for Shortland appears to want—but that will push these births underground and it will reduce access to the high-quality professionals that these people need, because they are going to do it anyway. Some will argue, ‘That is not taking much care of the unborn baby,’ but I do not think that is a fair characterisation of what these mothers and fathers are going through. The experiences they had in these public hospitals were so horrific that I can understand why they do not want to go back. It is only right and fair that they be able to choose another option which suits their needs better.

This is a very private and personal experience. It is a very important experience that many of us go through and enjoy. To tell someone that they cannot do it their chosen way because of an insurance issue is weak. It is right that the minister has backflipped, and we hope that she continues to. I support the sentiments of what Amy Sparshott, Joe Woods and others who have come to see me have said. It is about choice, but it is about choice for their reasons—whether it be the experience they have had previously in a public hospital or whether it be that they feel more comfortable to give birth in the home environment, it should be their choice.

The issue of care and responsibility for the unborn child raises its head in this debate. The situation is that homebirthing is not for everybody and few people choose it. There is no doubt that there are certain cases where homebirthing should not be undertaken—on medical advice—but I defy anyone to tell me that mothers and fathers would deliberately put their unborn babies at risk. It is quite an accusation to suggest that people would willingly put their unborn babies at risk and not think through the consequences.

We are very pleased that we have been able to get the minister to back down from the original intention of the bill, which was to outlaw homebirthing. It is as clear as day that slapping a $33,000 fine on midwives for assisting with homebirthing clearly rules that out as a possible option. We are glad that the government have backed down on that, because it would have sent homebirths underground, it would have reduced choice and it would have been a negative move for females in this country. We stand on the side of choice. We stand on the side of females being able to choose the healthiest and most appropriate way for them to give birth. We are glad the minister has backed down so far on this and we hope that she goes even further.

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