Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The last 48 hours has been a troubling period for the Christian community in my electorate of Bowman. There was an important victory at 2.30 pm yesterday when the Queensland education minister removed the religious education provisions of the education bill 2006 and promised not to bring the bill back to Queensland’s unicameral parliament in the foreseeable future. But, no sooner than that victory has been achieved, we have the same problem in our public hospitals. It is the same decision to move our leading faiths in Queensland from being an opt-out arrangement, which allows everyone to have access to Christian values and to religious education and, in the case of hospitals, to a Bible in a side cupboard in our public wards.

The spokespersons from leading state hospitals in Brisbane indicated both to the leading paper in Brisbane and also on radio that there was no place for Bibles in their hospitals, as of the time of their making the statement, and they dissembled about two causes of concern to them being cross-infection and respect for multiculturalism. What an appalling defence for an appalling act. There is not a scintilla of evidence to suggest that a Bible sitting in a top cupboard in a public room in a state hospital presents an infection risk—certainly no more than the magazines that are sitting on the front counter for everyone to read and that are scattered in the waiting rooms of surgical wards around the state. It is an abhorrent move.

Of course, it was interesting today then when all roads led to Rome—that is, Acting Premier Anna Bligh, the presumed architect of all of these opt-in provisions for spirituality and for Christianity in Queensland. What did the press release say? The press release said:

If a patient in one of our hospitals wants a Bible there will be one there.

That presumably means that somebody just stops doing the cardiac monitoring and scurries around for a holy book. It is a preposterous proposition. Also, the Acting Premier said:

Bibles have always been allowed in Queensland Hospitals and that will remain ...

Of course one cannot ban a Bible from anywhere; that would be a breach of section 116 of the Constitution. That would be prohibiting the free exercise of religion. But the point is: are Bibles practically available? And this Acting Premier is doing everything to make sure that they are not.

I have already been on the record about this in only the last 24 hours. I said that, in a state where waiting lists are blowing out, in a state where medical registration has been effectively mangled by the Premier, in a state where there is a complete collapse in confidence and issues with nursing and allied health wages, I think that a state public hospital in Queensland would have to be the one place where I would want to be able to reach out for a Bible.

Those who provide the Bibles are unwilling to make public statements, for understandable reasons, just as we saw with religious education provisions. There is a genuine reluctance for those who are privileged enough to be able to educate our children and have 40 hours access a year in the curriculum to take issue with the Beattie government on this very matter. So I am compelled to stand here in the federal parliament, and I can already say that we have had considerable success in education. The next battle front, the next trench in this battle between now and the next state election, is certainly the attempt by the Beattie government to eliminate Bibles from hospitals.

There is already the trickery in the language, the trickery that ‘There will be one there’ and that ‘We can call a chaplain and bring one in tomorrow for you,’ to make it as difficult as possible. It comes back to the opt-in provisions. You have to actively scurry around to find something as ‘dangerous’ as a Bible. What a preposterous proposition. But that is what underpins their ideology.

We already know that Queensland is a state with enough commonsense to realise when completely foolish decisions are made by a state government. They will tip them out. This should already be a warning, and I think that in hospitals we have another one coming. Already we know that the attitude to Christian heritage in Queensland from the Beattie government is questionable at best. It appears to be an operating principle of Queensland political life that you make it as tough as possible for values.

I do not stand up here for one moment and say that everyone should have to read a Bible, but I also ask for some commonsense. If I found myself admitted to a Thai hospital, I do not think I would be offended to open up a cupboard and see a holy book from some other religion. In fact, it would probably make interesting reading. So I see no problem with the current arrangements. Many have said that that is a particular time when our hospitals look after not only our physical health, not only our emotional health, but our spiritual health. There is no reason to change the status quo. Those Bibles should be replaced—(Time expired)