Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I table this document which has been presented as a petition in a non-conforming way. This document is from the group Independent Regional Mothers in Victoria and is about a demand for accountability and justice for past sexual crimes, abduction of newborn babies and medical experimentation. I seek leave to make a short statement of one minute.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the chamber. This document has come from a very strong group of women in Victoria known as the Independent Regional Mothers. Many of those in this chamber have met these women through a series of Senate community affairs committee inquiries.

Ms Brenda Coughlan is the spokesperson for this group. Over many years she has been strong about her own extremely sensitive and damaging personal experiences when she was a young woman who had her baby stolen. More particularly, she has very strong claims that, while she was young, she was subjected to a number of medical experiments with drugs and other activities. She feels very strongly that the medical profession in this nation has not been held to account for this kind of activity, and she continues her fight. This particular document is part of her ongoing battle. I strongly support her strength and the resilience, and I am very proud to be able to table this document in her name today.