SpeechHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker and thank you for the opportunity—SPEAKER: For five minutes.Hon PAULA BENNETT: —yeah thank you; for five minutes—to speak in this debate and have an opportunity to just put myself on record. I will be supporting this bill and I want to acknowledge Andrew Little for bringing it to the House. I want to acknowledge him for talking to others about it and for his contribution just then which I think did fill in quite a few of the details that we want to do.I was thinking it is a little bit of a week for decriminalisation in this House. We had the drugs amendment bill and now we're decriminalising abortions which in that one I certainly do support. A woman choosing not to carry out a pregnancy should not be a criminal act in my opinion and that's pretty much how I've come to my conclusion of supporting this. When we have the kinds of numbers that we're talking about which at the moment are around 13200—the highest it got to was over 18000 abortions in 2003—when we've seen that the number of teen pregnancies literally reduced by half—by half—which I think is something we should be incredibly proud of as a country and when we've seen that happening I think it says to us actually that there wouldn't be many of us that don't know someone or care for someone or love someone who has been through an experience of an unwanted pregnancy.Some have chosen to follow that through and some have chosen the road of abortion. None of those decisions have been in any way shape or form taken lightly done without considerable pain and thought and acknowledgment of all that they are going through. To then have to sit there and make a call that actually they have to then perhaps go through what could be a mental health issue or try and come up with an excuse that is beyond the actual trauma that they are already going through in my mind isn't right and it is for that reason that I believe it should be taken out of the Crimes Act and be considered as a health issue.No matter what this House does it will not stop abortions happening. If the most right-wing conservative who doesn't agree stepped in here next week and said This is the law." they would be happening illegally and women would be going through what we've seen in past decades some of the most horrific health treatment. So in my opinion we have a role to do it with compassion to do it with the right checks and balances in place. Like anyone I always worry about coercion and particularly with some of our younger girls that find themselves in a position of unwanted pregnancies. I want to see them getting the right counselling. I want to see them having the right sort of backup so that they can make the best choices for them. For some actually they will need a longer time of help and I think you acknowledge that in this as well which I cry out for but we should not be telling them that they have to lie to the medical practitioner that they're in front of so that they can get the medical help that they want. They would probably be doing it anyway but it would be in a back street and it would be incredibly dangerous and that's not the country we live in.So I imagine there's going to be a lot of people that are going to have personal call-outs. I do want to see us discuss further in committee stage around the post-20 weeks. That does still concern me and I hear that you're saying it's such a small proportion—let's really allay those assurances with the public because that's what they're looking for. So let's make sure that we seriously give them that.But in my mind I do believe in a woman's right to choose. I do believe that we as parliamentarians have a responsibility to make that as safe as it possibly can be for those that are in a situation where they are making some of the most traumatic and extreme decisions that they will have to make in their lifetime. We should be supporting them with legislation that does support them. Thank you."