Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:40): (1348) My question is for the Minister for Health. South Australia and New South Wales are both dealing with parliamentary bills that seek to wind back abortion access. It is not theoretical. It is not just happening over there, somewhere like the United States. It is happening now in neighbouring Australian states. Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have made it clear they will seek to restrict abortion access in every Australian jurisdiction. We know, historically, when the hard right come knocking, one of the first things they always come after is abortion rights. What concrete action will Labor take before the end of this term to protect access to abortion for Victorians beyond 28 November?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (12:41): Thank you, Dr Mansfield, for that question. We have been resolute here as Labor governments in Victoria in providing access to abortion care; we have been resolute in extensive discussions, debates and reviews to ensure that access to abortion is available here in Victoria; and we have been resolute, methodical and laser focused on making sure that we are not causing the demonisation or stigma associated with accessing abortion care to proliferate here in Victoria. Our track record speaks for itself in that regard, and I would refer you to debates that were undertaken in this place: candid, open, frank debates and discussions not just on the passage of legislation in the first instance but then on safe access zones – something which, again, those opposite have opposed on every occasion they can.

To that end, Dr Mansfield, I want to reiterate for the benefit of this chamber, for the Parliament, for you and for Victorians: we stand with women who are looking to access abortion care, whether medical or surgical care. We stand with women in the way in which we have allocated around $153 million to women’s health across this state – the delivery of additional funding for green whistle services so that women can access IUD insertion or removal without pain, the way in which the oral contraceptive pill will be able to be dispensed by pharmacists. We stand alongside the community health services who are providing support and care. 1800 My Options has provided 50,000 calls to women accessing information, including on where and how they can find an abortion service or the sort of medical and practical support that they require, from the middle of Melbourne right out through to the edges of the state. Our actions speak to our commitment to making sure that women have reproductive and bodily autonomy, including in the way in which they – we – can access abortion services around the state.

Much has been said by others around the weaponisation of reproductive rights and access to abortion internationally and here in Australia. It would be so telling if we were to see a revival of the debate on bodily autonomy with women at its heart become part of this debate as a stalking horse for conservative movements, as we have seen in the United States.

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:44): Last year the Greens tabled a bill to put access to abortion in the Victorian constitution to make it much more difficult for those rights to be taken away by a future Parliament and avoid the situation that, as you were saying at the end of your contribution, we are so keen to avoid here. Labor enshrined the SEC in Victoria’s constitution. If Labor can constitutionally protect a government energy company, why has it not sought to constitutionally protect access to abortion?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (12:45): Thank you, Dr Mansfield, for that question. The Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 provides those really clear legislative protections for women to access clinical supports and community supports for abortion care. We funded those sexual and reproductive health hubs. We have continued with women’s health and wellbeing support. We continue to provide that support for interdisciplinary care. We have got a range of women’s health services that every single day are delivering those practical reforms. Again, the law operates in a way that provides and confers that benefit every single day. We will continue to uphold and to enforce that law in a way that ensures that its primary objectives are not only met but are accessible in real-world outcomes, and we will continue to work alongside general practitioners, community health services and others. As far as the legislative program is concerned, we will continue to strengthen those components of the reforms that we enabled and that we led Australia on into the future.