LNP MP Jon Krause says more ‘like-minded’ politicians need to be elected to repeal abortion laws
In a direct challenge to leader David Crisafulli’s vow there would be ‘no change’ to abortion laws, Scenic Rim MP Jon Krause has pledged his support to overturn or make ‘significant amendments’ to the legislation.
A long-serving Liberal National Party backbencher has encouraged voters to elect other “like-minded” MPs to help repeal Queensland’s abortion laws.
In a direct challenge to leader David Crisafulli’s vow there would be “no change” to abortion laws if the LNP won government at the October 26 state election, Scenic Rim MP Jon Krause has pledged his support to overturn or make “significant amendments” to the legislation.
Speaking at a live-streamed community candidate forum on September 15, Mr Krause accused the Labor government of taking Queensland “down the rabbit holes of social experimentation” with the 2018 laws that removed abortion from the Criminal Code and allowed the procedure on request up to 22 weeks’ gestation.
Touting Mr Crisafulli’s record to the crowd at Harvest Point Church in Beaudesert, west of Brisbane, Mr Krause said the LNP leader was a “firm believer” who had voted against decriminalising abortion in 2018 and legalising voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in 2021.
“In our partyroom, these matters are always dealt with as a conscious vote and members make up their own minds, as happened with the last bill, where I decided to vote against it as did all bar-three of my colleagues,” he said.
“I see some serious issues with the present law, and would certainly be a part of bringing about like-minded members to try and deal with those issues.
“We need to ensure that there are enough people in the parliament to be able to repeal those laws or to make significant amendments.”
When asked by the moderator about Mr Crisafulli’s refusal to repeal the legislation, Mr Krause responded: “I don’t know that he said he wouldn’t.”
At a separate candidate forum in Gympie, north of Brisbane, last week, LNP frontbencher Tony Perrett said he believed life was created at conception, had voted against decriminalising the procedure in 2018 and “would continue to do so”.
Under increasing attacks from Labor over “secret plans” to wind back reforms, Mr Crisafulli last month promised an LNP government would continue funding Labor’s $42m termination-of-pregnancy action plan, which will be used to recruit more nurses to perform medical abortions and to establish a virtual termination-of-pregnancy service, to improve access for women in rural and remote areas.
The parliament passed laws earlier this year, without the support of the LNP, to expand access to the procedure, becoming the first jurisdiction in Australia to allow nurses and midwives to prescribe medical abortion pills.
Mr Crisafulli has also pledged not to revoke the power of nurses to prescribe MS-2 Step, which can be taken up to nine weeks from conception.
Former LNP minister Jann Stuckey, one of three LNP MPs who voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in 2018, spoke to The Australian this week of her fears that the Termination of Pregnancy Act and VAD would be repealed if her old party formed majority government later this month.
“A captain’s call cannot stop agitation and action from MPs dead against this legislation, it’s his partyroom that will decide,” she said. “Some may choose to put up a private member’s bill, as could the Katters or other independents.”
At a media conference on Monday morning, held in a chapel at the Mount Gravatt showgrounds, Mr Crisafulli insisted there would be no change to the law but refused to say whether he would deny his MPs a conscience vote if a bill was brought before the parliament.
“I’m just making my position clear that there will be no change,” he said.
Pressed again about blocking a conscience vote, he said: “There will be no change.”
“The only people talking about it is the government … none of my team has been.
“Queenslanders deserve certainty on this, and it’s a sensitive issue, it really is, and it’s been whipped up for political purposes.”
Labor Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said Queensland women and girls who “fought hard for years to see a legal and safe and affordable access to termination of pregnancy should be really scared today” because the LNP had released a health plan without mentioning women’s health, aside from a commitment to reopen maternity services at Biloela and Cooktown Hospitals.
“We are a government that absolutely believes that women and girls deserve first-class healthcare,” Ms Fentiman said. “The LNP have absolutely ignored women’s health, and we all know what they will do when it comes to accessing abortion.”
“Jann Stuckey … knows David Crisafulli and the LNP better than anyone else. If she’s worried, then everyone else, every woman and girl, should be worried in Queensland about what they will do for women’s health, particularly access to termination of pregnancy.”
Ahead of the 2020 election campaign, former LNP leader Deb Frecklington promised to review parts of the Termination of Pregnancy Act, including “gestation limits, counselling arrangements and protections against abortion coercion”.
When first asked by The Australian in 2022 about whether he would review abortion laws, Mr Crisafulli said matters that involved life or death should “never be the case of a policy position”.
“(They) should always be individual conscience votes and that would always be the way that I conduct myself.”
He firmed-up his position in November 2023, telling the Queensland Media Club: “No changes for four years.”
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