Health Minister Tim Nichols has been accused of trying to mislead parliament over a change of regulations which allow a midwife to administer a dangerous drug to abort babies.
Despite filling his speech with lot of words, the Minister misled Queenslanders by refusing to address the Government’s progression of Labor’s pro-abortion trajectory, Leader of the KAP and state Member for Traeger Robbie Katter has said.
The Health Minister spoke to a totally different health department document Tuesday and deliberately obfuscated around the truth that the LNP have removed a condition of employer approval from the administering of the life ending drug, MS-2 Step that the former Labor government introduced access to.
“The blatant avoidance of the issue simply sums up this government’s attitude to tackling the hard issues in this state,” Mr Katter said.
“The Minister skilfully avoided addressing the important changes that he signed off on, instead choosing to continually refer to a totally different document, and classification of health worker.
“Instead of admitting that the LNP government have followed Labor’s moral decline, removing the requirement for employer approval for the administering of MS-2 Step, the minister spoke to every issue except the issue I raised in the parliament.
“We weren’t in the parliament to debate the benefits of flu vaccinations, or whether a nurse required training.
“We brought this debate to the parliament because the Minister had signed off on midwives (distinct from nurses as constantly referenced by the minister), no longer needing employer approval to end the life of an unborn Queenslander.
“When Queensland already accounts for 37% of the MS-2 Step prescriptions across Australia, why would the LNP need to progress Labor’s 2018 Abortion bill and their 2024 abortion action plan?” the KAP leader said.
The government used its numbers in the parliament to guillotine any further debate, doubling down with their mantra of gagging any debate on abortion, after the minister spoke, defying parliament convention.
“If the arrogance to totally ignore the issue at hand wasn’t enough, the government were so scared of any further scrutiny of their decision to ease restrictions on MS-2 Step, they used their numbers to shut down debate with no other speakers contributing.
“No LNP members had the gumption to stand up for the lives of unborn Queenslanders (more than 17,000 per year in Queensland from MS-2 Step alone), instead relying on the ‘Health’ minister to defend the relaxing of controls on terminating lives.
“And KAP MP Shane Knuth was likewise deprived his opportunity to put forward his position.
“Queenslanders need to know what the government is doing, and if that means signing off on removing employer approvals on abortions, tell the public – don’t duck and hide behind parliamentary tricks and weasel words.
“Labor started Queensland’s slide down the slippery moral slope, but the LNP have pushed us down further,” he said.
