Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge my support for these amendments. I've given a speech on this already. I also concur with the views of the previous speaker. I think it's very limiting when people say, 'I don't know what's wrong with your argument, but I'm going to talk about your religion.' I don't think that wins any argument; that just reinforces a previous conceit.

I think the issue is probabilities, possibilities and risks. There is no definite example—in fact, there is no example—of success through this process in the United Kingdom. They've been with it for five years. We all understand the scourges of mitochondrial disease. We absolutely understand it. But there has to be some form of deliberate attachment to success that they've seen, and we haven't seen that.

We are making, I believe, a large ethical step—saying that we will create human life for the sole purpose of destroying it. That is something that crosses a boundary for many of us. It calls on us to deal with the scourge of mitochondrial disease but not in so doing to avail ourselves of any other, further mechanisms of proscribing it. I won't delay the House, but I think it's incredibly important that we understand exactly what we're about to vote on here.

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