Abortion debate: NSW Premier defeated on ‘informed consent’ amendment

Gladys Berejiklian voted against the successful “informed consent” amendment as the bill moves closer to passing the lower house.

The bill decriminalising abortion is set to pass the NSW lower house. Picture: AAP

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been defeated on an aspect of the abortion bill, after she voted against the successful “informed consent” amendment.

Ms Berejiklian was one of 41 MPs who voted against an amendment by Attorney-General Mark Speakman to require a woman to give “informed consent” before undergoing a termination, The Australian has been told by two government MPs, who struggled to recall when last a premier had voted on the losing side as part of a conscience vote.

It is understood Ms Berejiklian voted against the provision as she believed it was already current practice.

Mr Speakman’s motion was successful 49-41 despite Health Minister Brad Hazzard and the premier opposing it.

In debate this morning, Mr Hazzard — rather than the original mover of the bill Alex Greenwich — has been leading debate and responding to each amendment as they arise.

Earlier, Mr Speakman voted to send the bill to committee, which would have delayed a final vote for several weeks.

But he was unsuccessful, as the bill looks set to pass the lower house in the next 24 hours.

Mr Speakman told the parliament that he had voted for the amendment to send the bill off to committee because he believed it would be preferable to do a month’s work on it to get it right rather than pass it this morning.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman. Picture: AAP

Of the 35 Liberal members of the Legislative Assembly, including the Speaker, 22-24 are voting against the bill or for major amendments, but are being voted down.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes said the law as originally drafted by he and Mr Speakman believed was “incredibly loose”.

He said there were concerns around the definition of a general practitioner who could perform a procedure and, while he was initially told that late-term abortions required the approval of a hospital ethics committee, he was informed by the cross-party group that worked on the Greenwich bill last night that that was not necessarily always the case.

Bill to pass lower house

The law decriminalising abortion appears set to pass the NSW Legislative Assembly after a motion to “read the bill a second time” passed 56-33 this morning.

But debate is occurring today as to whether the bill should be amended to tighten up on restrictions around late term abortions in particular.

Alex Greenwich moved this morning that the bill be read a second time and it passed 56-33.

Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly failed in a motion to send the bill to a parliamentary inquiry by a similar margin.

Former Mental Health Minister Tanya Davies, who is anti-abortion, this morning moved to change the threshold of where tighter tests were needed for an abortion from the foetus being 22-weeks-old to 20-weeks-old.

NSW Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich. Picture: AAP

But Mr Hazzard opposed the change, arguing that the Queensland laws passed last year set 22 weeks as the threshold and Victoria decided in 2008 to make that threshold 24 weeks.

“The bill should be voted on the way it is,” Mr Hazzard said.

“Twenty-two weeks is the recommended period from the Law Reform Commission.”

The Health Minister argued that the bill was simply about taking the act of abortion from a “criminal framework to a medical framework” because the practice of abortion was already happening in NSW now.

Ms Davies argued babies can be born and survive at 21 weeks.

But her motion failed 54-35.

There are a total of 19 amendments to be debated with the government estimating the bill will be passed early tomorrow morning. It will then be debated in the upper house in two weeks’ time.