‘Cross your legs’: MPs put on notice amid heated Queensland question time

Opposition MP Ros Bates has caused outrage after yelling “cross your legs” across state parliament while Health Minister Shannon Fentiman was responding to a question about cancelled maternity services.

Question time became increasingly heated on Wednesday as the LNP repeatedly quizzed Fentiman about maternity services being scaled back or put on bypass at various Queensland hospitals, forcing women to give birth elsewhere.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman (left) and Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates.

Fentiman was responding to a question from MP Jon Krause about Beaudesert hospital’s maternity unit being put on bypass numerous times when Bates interjected.

The health minister and Premier Steven Miles seized on Bates’ comment in social media posts, accusing her of yelling “close your legs”.

The official parliamentary Hansard quotes Bates as saying “cross your legs”, in an apparent reference to mothers needing to hold on while in labour.

Speaker Curtis Pitt asked Bates to withdraw her comment, which she did.

“This is disgraceful behaviour by the LNP’s Ros Bates,” Miles wrote on social media site X, sharing clipped and captioned footage that Fentiman had posted, and which had gained traction.

“No woman should be treated like this in a workplace, or anywhere for that matter.”

Both deleted their posts after Bates’ actual comments were clarified, but Fentiman (and Miles) later reposted the clip with the caption corrected to “cross your legs”.

Fentiman also shared a separate video explaining she had made the correction due to parliamentary rules.

“Whether it’s cross or close your legs, it’s still abhorrent [and] completely insulting. So if you have liked, comment[ed] or shared the video, please do so again,” she told her followers.

Bates defended her comment, saying Labor was resorting to a “baseless misrepresentation” of what she had said. She indicated she would be writing to Pitt about the matter.

“With Labor suggesting women could just bypass their local hospital to go to another hospital to give birth, I could not believe Labor was telling mothers to ‘cross your legs’ while in labour. This is the comment I made,” Bates said via a lengthy statement, also posted to X.

“The comment was clearly not about the health minister, it was about the alarming Queensland maternity crisis, which continues to worsen on her watch and is putting women and children at risk.”

Fentiman offered explanations to the often-brief instances of altered maternity services raised by the LNP on Tuesday. She cited staffing gaps and facility upgrades, and said expectant mothers were kept informed and, “for the most part”, unaffected.

The minister also accused the LNP of “creating unnecessary fear in the community”.

Earlier, Labor MP Ali King accused LNP leader David Crisafulli of being a “grub” after he interrupted Fentiman. The Speaker also warned King over her comment.