Abortion Legislation Bill

Members, the House is in committee on the Abortion Legislation Bill.

💬 Hon Jacqui Dean: Mr Chair.

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Are you calling for a point of order?

💬 Hon Jacqui Dean: No. I seek to move an instruction to the committee.

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I’m sorry; you’re too late.

💬 Hon Jacqui Dean: I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson.

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I’m going to rule on the first part, OK? It is too late to move an instruction to the committee. That should have been done when we were still in the House. OK? So if you’ve got a further point of order which is different to that, I’ll take the point of order.

I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. Thank you, Mr Chair. I have been seeking a call for quite some time, calling out “Mr Chair”, and that call has not been answered. That is not my fault.

I’m sorry; I’m the chair of the committee of the whole House. You should have been seeking that point of order with the Speaker of the House. Also, at the first order of business, I actually read out what we’re doing in committee, which I’m trying to do. I’ll start again.

The House is in committee on the Abortion Legislation Bill. Members, when we were last considering this bill we had concluded considering Part 1. We now come to consider Part 2. Members, Jan Logie’s Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 326 seeks to amend clause 11 of the bill to insert a new amendment to the Crimes Act 1961. That would substantially amend the key elements of the offence of killing an unborn child. This amendment is outside the scope of the bill as the bill only amends this offence for the purposes of clarifying that lawfully provided abortion services do not constitute that offence. This amendment, therefore, cannot be debated and will not be voted on. The other amendments in SOP 326 are in order and will be voted on. The question is that Part 2 stand part.

Part 2 Amendments to other enactments