Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is no secret that my views are very pro-life. I have campaigned on it, I have gone out there and run my colours up the mast. And I do not think it is any secret where Senator Ursula Stephens is. I think she would share my views and I do not think she would mind me saying it. She gave an assurance here. Not only did she give an assurance; she read out the law. It was not just an assurance; it was the law and she read it out. You cannot tamper with the law, and she would be the last person that would. I am assured that the only way mischief can happen is for a doctor to be a blatant liar and risk his ability to earn money, because if he did sign off a stillbirth as an abortion or vice versa he would lose his right to practise—I presume that would be the penalty or one of the penalties—and risk his reputation and his good standing in the community, and I do not know what for. The law is the law. That was read out by Senator Ursula Stephens. Maybe the Leader of the Government in the Senate can read that law out again, read it into Hansard again, to reassure Senator Fielding. But I think the people who are pro-life on this side of the house have accepted that the law is the law as read out by Senator Stephens and have accepted the assurances given by other ministers. Let’s not build up a straw man to knock it down here.