New South Wales voters have every reason to feel betrayed.
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The Daily Advertiser's editorial last Monday on the abortion issue summed up the situation when it said there is no doubt Dr McGirr's position on abortion will shift votes.
Joe McGirr's principled action has cemented his hold on the Wagga electorate for as long as he wishes to serve. The whole National Party, and very many Liberal members, backed the Reproductive Heath Care Reform Bill, including the Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
The premier's statement in The Daily Telegraph may very well be the nail in her electoral coffin: "Can I make this very clear, many members of parliament had indicated that they wanted to move the bill, not just before the election but quite a while before the election. ... I was asked about it during the election, I didn't speak about it because it's not government policy."
Not an election issue. Not Liberal or Nationals policy. Parties with no principles, no values, no morals were willing to ambush and betray voters by rushing abortion legislation through the parliament. This is surely Gladys Berejiklian's "greyhound-ban" moment.
She rambled on, like a naughty girl with a slingshot next to a broken window. "It wasn't my policy. It was an independent member that brought it forward ..." He made me do it? Did we elect an inner city green-leaning independent as premier?
That independent is inner-city Alex Greenwich, Member for Sydney, the only openly gay male MP in the NSW Legislative Assembly, with priorities somewhat different to mainstream Australia.
... an amendment to save the lives of babies that are born alive after an abortion attempt was not passed
His recent Private Member's Statement to the Legislative Assembly on August 7 began, "I speak in support of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras bid to host WorldPride in 2023 ... WorldPride is a massive LGBTIQ event of festivals, parades, activities and conferences that celebrates the achievements of past heroes who have helped produce reforms and the rich cultural diversity of LGBTIQ communities".
He is pictured on his website with his predecessor, Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, holding the rainbow flag. He supports "assisted dying laws" and "the humane treatment of animals". So is Alex Greenwich now setting NSW's agenda?
Sydney's Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher has expressed his distress that an amendment to save the lives of babies that are born alive after an abortion attempt was not passed. "Better proposed amendments, such as one to require that a baby born alive after a failed abortion be given lifesaving care, were defeated," he said, noting that in the US, 143 infants were born alive and died between 2003 and 2014 after attempted abortions.
Damien Tudehope, the Liberal NSW Minister for Finance and Small Business, said in the Sydney Morning Herald: "The fact is, the law ... would indeed make abortion legal in NSW all the way up to birth, with no meaningful restrictions whatsoever. All that would be required for a late-term abortion is that two doctors consent."
He continued, "... this bill removes every reasonable restriction, all the way to birth, ruthlessly dispensing with any last vestige of the notion that the baby in the womb is a human being whose life is worthy of any protection at all," adding the bill should have "included a criminal offence for coercing a woman into having an abortion".
When another of the few decent Liberal MPs, Tanya Davies, former Minister for Women, moved a motion to require "termination not to be used for gender selection" it was defeated. Alex Greenwich described Ms Davies' amendment as "hostile" and "poorly drafted".
Who really believes that abortions won't occur once the sex of the foetus is revealed? It is a fair bet that the greater share of aborted foetuses will be girls. Tanya Davies pointed out that in the five years after Victoria's abortion laws were enacted, mothers born in China and India suddenly started having more boy babies than girls, as shown by a La Trobe University study.
"There are over 300 missing girls in Victoria due to sex selection before birth in the Indian, Chinese and South East Asian migrant communities between 2011 and 2015," Tanya Davies said.
MLCs Fred Nile and Mark Latham are discussing amendments, including preventing sex-selective abortion. The Legislative Council sits again tomorrow.
Normalising abortion is a step too far.