‘Toughest 48 hours I’ve ever had’: Game plan for Family First SA
Family First member Sarah Game said the last two days were her toughest in politics, while the Premier breaks his silence on his vote on the controversial late-term abortion bill.
Upper house MLC Sarah Game, who joined the conservative party Family First this week, said she does not plan to bring her abortion bill back to parliament in the near future.
“I don’t want to keep bringing back a bill that has no chance,” Game told InDaily.
“I don’t feel like that’s the plan. Obviously, I’m very happy it passed the upper house.”
Game secured the 11 votes needed to pass the state’s upper house – the first time a pro-life bill has passed after three attempts in under two years.
She told InDaily that securing those votes was “the toughest 48 hours I’ve ever had”.
“Trying to get 11 people to vote for this, the nature of the conversations are fragile, and you’re working with different moral compasses… you get exhausted,” she said.
The bill was defeated in the lower house hours later, 36 votes to nine.
You might like
Game said the lower house result was “extremely disappointing” but pointed to both the Premier and Opposition Leader voting in favour.
“These bills are displayed as ridiculous or unnecessary, but here’s our popular Premier and well-respected Leader of the Opposition voting for it,” Game said.
“That does give validity to what we tried to do.”
Both Premier Peter Malinauskas and Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn voted for the bill to restrict later-term abortion, neither speaking in the debate.
Addressing the media this morning, Malinauskas said his view was that “abortions should be safe, legal, and rare”.
“I’ve had particular concerns around very late-term abortions, and last night’s vote just reflected the same way I voted in the recent past, when we actually decriminalised abortion in this state, and I voted for it,” the Premier said.
Malinauskas voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in 2021 and voted in support of amendments that would restrict access in some circumstances. Hurn was not in government in 2021 when the decriminalisation bill was passed.
“I wanted the parliament to deal with it decisively and quickly. Now, I know there was some resistance from [anti-abortion activist and bill author] Joanna Howe and her crew, but we weren’t going to muck around here,” Malinauskas said.
Stay informed, daily
“What I would say is the result is resounding, and you know people who want to continue to relitigate these issues over and over again are not going to sidetrack the government.
“I hope that the protagonists of this type of legislation read the room, realise that there are more important things to focus on, and all just allow us to get on with that job.”
Hurn told reporters before the vote that she would consider the bill, “but my view is that abortions should be safe, they should be legal, and they should be rare”.
Game said she would have liked more time to campaign and to give her bill the best chance of succeeding in the lower house, rather than the government’s fast-tracked approach.
SA Abortion Action Coalition co-convenor Brigid Coombe said the group commended the government’s move “to bring debate over this bill to a swift close”.
“Debate over this bill has aired stigmatising rhetoric and amplified health care misinformation,” Coombe said.
“We hope that for the foreseeable future, health care will no longer be hijacked by the ideological agenda of a minority of politicians.”
Coombe said the group was “relieved” by the result and could now “refocus our attention on improving pathways to quality healthcare for all those needing abortions, particularly those in rural and regional areas, and to supporting those involved in this care”.
Game said she was now focused on her other work to pursue conservative family values in parliament, including an enquiry into men and boys’ wellbeing and a “parental primacy” amendment bill.
The parental primacy bill would change existing education laws to “give parents more control over the education their children receive on issues of morality, ethics, politics, social values, personal wellbeing, and identity, including gender and sexuality,” according to Game’s website.
This would include requiring schools to give parents prior notification about classroom content regarding identity, gender and sexuality.
“[Abortion] is a very important issue but not the only important issue,” Game said.
Family First National Director Lyle Shelton, who would run for the party in the upcoming New South Wales election, said “the abortion debate won’t go away”.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
