Page 2722 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 26 September 2007
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You cannot quantify it. With respect to the care of a child, you cannot quantify it. You give them all that you have got, whether it is financial, physical or emotional.
Mr Corbell: Unless they are disabled, apparently.
MR SMYTH: Mr Corbell cannot help himself and says “unless it is disabled”. I am sure that most parents of disabled children would give even more than they can afford in terms of physical, mental and financial support for their child.
Mr Corbell: Yes, but Mrs Dunne’s bill provides for financial compensation.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Smyth has the floor.
MR SMYTH: You continue to lie to the Assembly, Mr Corbell, because what you are saying is wrong. All you are doing is simply showing your own ignorance. The question here is: what are we actually legislating for here today? Mrs Dunne will give her summary shortly. We are saying that we, as the Liberal Party of the ACT, refuse to put a price on a child’s life. We refuse to travel down the slippery slope of what the Canberra Times described as the “increasingly litigious, self-centred society”. Let us put more money into our kids. Let us spend more time with them. We all know the pressures of life, particularly in this place. We all know how much of our time is taken up. I have to say that the birth of my son David 18 months ago has certainly reawakened my mind to what is important in life.
Let what we refer to as “life’s little accidents” be accepted joyfully. I have twins; we had not planned for twins. We probably only wanted one at that stage. What should I have done? Should I have become the Billy Connolly of the ACT and been the man who sued God? What do you do? What do all the parents who have them naturally do? Mrs Dunne’s bill, if it is passed, still allows people to seek redress for negligence.
Mr Corbell: That is the point. It is about medical negligence. It is not about the birth of the child.
MR SMYTH: That is right, Mr Corbell: negligence. It is about negligence. What I think we are doing in this place and what we should represent in this place is what the community wants. That is what we are elected to do. We are certainly elected to make decisions on how to deliver what the community wants and needs. We only have to be out there in the real world and listening to the majority of people who are appalled at the very notion of this case. They would like to see something happen and they applaud what Mrs Dunne has done in bringing this forward today, having considered it over a period of time. The bill has been there for two years. It is here today; it is appropriate to debate it today in the context of what is going on in a Canberra court. I think it is very important that we as legislators use our ability to send a message to the present trial, and also regarding all future actions that may or may not occur, about what we feel is appropriate to happen with children.
It is very important that we get it right today. I am very pleased that Mrs Dunne has chosen today to bring on this bill. I am pleased that she has the support of her colleagues. I know, in talking to the community, that the majority of the community is in favour of this sort of legislation. I would urge the government, should they not want
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