Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

snag. Having said all that, there remain some matters of interest for me that I have looked into with respect to midwifery for some of my constituents and which still to some extent remain unresolved, and they are around the issue of home births. We know that for many individuals the location they choose for having their child is a very personal choice. It might be in a hospital, but there are a number of women, I recognise, who hold the fundamental view that childbirth is a very natural thing—not something that requires medical intervention—and they often choose to have their child in the familiar, comfortable surroundings of their home. For those midwives who practice their art or their skills in people's homes, there is still, I am told by those in that industry, some uncertainty about their legal liabilities and their level of protection for homebirths. Although this act does not go directly to that matter, it is important to recognise that there are very active and vocal groups in many communities, not just in my own, who hold the view that we should be doing more to facilitate things for those women who would like to be midwives and for those women who would like to give birth in their own homes.

So I just put on the record my support for those who choose to go down that path. It was not the pathway that my wife and I chose to go down. Notwithstanding that, I recognise it as a personal choice, a choice that many women make. Again, in that sense, I think policy should be directed towards assisting them, recognising, though, what for me was an inescapable fact—that there is, I believe, an elevated risk as a result of homebirths. That elevated risk notwithstanding, the reality is that there is of course no aspect of life that is without risk and I recognise the rights of those who choose to have their child in their own home.

I am certainly pleased to support the bill before the House today. I recognise that it comes as a consequence of a typographical error. You would have thought, perhaps, that with so many eyes in the executive checking this legislation, and with so many others checking it, these kinds of errors would not take place. That notwithstanding, it has taken place, but it is being corrected and the opposition supports that. I commend the bill to the House.

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