Abortion vote falls short after night of parliamentary chaos
Conservative Liberal MLC Ben Hood says he won’t push again to reform South Australia’s abortion laws in this term of parliament, after his controversial bill fell short by one vote.
Shortly before 10pm on Wednesday, the Upper House voted down Hood’s private members bill on late-term abortion 10 votes to 9 after around four hours of debate and speeches from 14 MPs.
The legislation, which was not Liberal Party policy, sought to change some of the progressive reforms to abortion law that passed parliament in 2021 that decriminalised pregnancy terminations after 28 weeks.
Hood’s proposal would have meant that someone pregnant for more than 27 weeks and six days who is seeking a termination would be induced instead of receiving an abortion. The mother could then choose whether to keep the baby or put it up for adoption.
The abortion debate over the last four weeks has garnered significant media attention, prompted pro-choice and pro-life rallies on the steps of parliament and put a spotlight on the conservative shift within the Liberal Party and its internal divisions.
But Hood told InDaily this morning that he does not intend to introduce another abortion bill in this term of parliament, which is due to end in March 2026.
“I don’t think that a termination of pregnancy amendment bill would be coming before this parliament in this term, and I certainly wouldn’t be moving one,” he said.
“I don’t think there is anyone on our side that would be thinking about doing that. Obviously, I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be attempting to move any other amendments.
“Although the vote was close… the (Legislative) Council has made its decision and I respect its decision.”
Ben Hood addressing a rally of abortion law reform supporters on September 25, 2024. Photo: Matt Turner/AAP
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Hood said he would, however, continue to push for more “granular data” on abortions performed after 22 weeks and six days.
“I think that if anything has come from this debate, I think that it is that we need better data,” he said.
“I honestly still believe that a lot of South Australians don’t understand what is happening with their current termination of pregnancy laws, and of course I’ll always continue to advocate that we do need to seriously look at the current state of play.
“But again, I won’t be moving any amendments to that in this term.”
Hood’s bill was voted down after some late parliamentary drama which saw a frantic scramble to find a parliamentary pair for moderate Liberal MLC Michelle Lensink.
Pairing is a parliamentary convention where if one MP intending to vote a particular way is not present in the chamber, another MP voting the other way absents themselves to even the numbers.
On most legislation, pairing arrangements are organised between the major parties but on conscience votes like abortion they are left for MPs to sort themselves.
As one of the architects of the progressive abortion law changes that passed parliament in 2021, Lensink would have voted against Hood’s bill but was absent from the Upper House due to her battle with breast cancer.
Lensink, who has been given medical leave, said she had organised a pair with fellow Liberal Jing Lee, but Lee notified her towards the end of the debate that she was pulling out to vote for the bill. Lee did not respond to inquiries today.
File photo: Liberal moderates Jing Lee and Michelle Lensink in the Upper House in November 2022. The two are at the centre of a pairing controversy over LIberal MLC Ben Hood’s 2024 abortion bill. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Lensink claims One Nation MLC Sarah Game then agreed over the phone to be a pair but backed out without notifying her.
Lensink said “I bundled my son into [an] Uber” heading to Parliament House in case her vote was needed; if no pair was agreed, the vote would have been tied and conservative Liberal speaker Terry Stephens would cast the deciding ballot.
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Fewer than three minutes before the vote, Labor MLC Tung Ngo was lined up to be Lensink’s pair, but Labor argued this would be unfair because the confusion was created by the Liberal Party.
Amid last-minute negotiations, Liberal MLC Dennis Hood – a former Family First member and staunch supporter of Ben Hood’s bill – agreed to absent himself from the chamber.
“Dennis Hood is the hero of the story,” one MP told InDaily.
Attorney-General Kyam Maher said “the withdrawal of the pair is something I’ve never seen in my time in the Legislative Council”, adding: “It is probably the single most dishonorable act that I think you can do as a member of parliament.”
The bill, if passed on its second reading, would have eventually been defeated in the Upper House once Lensink arrived via Uber, as it still needed to pass the committee and third reading stages.
Lensink said Game “lied to me on the phone” about their pairing arrangements, which Game denies.
“If people aren’t going to honour their pair, if they’re going to trash the system that’s operated in the parliament, I just felt like I had to be there (in parliament),” Lensink said.
“So, I got part the way down Lower North East Road, and then I got the messages back that it’s okay and the votes happened and all that stuff.
“But, you know, I have never, ever seen anything like this, people who are so prepared to be dishonest and trash the conventions of the parliament, it says something about the desperation that they’re in.”
Michelle Lensink posting her Uber receipts on Twitter last night.
Game told InDaily that “there’s no way I’m going to go out and decrease a vote on something that I’ve been fighting for very publicly and it’s important to my constituents if I don’t have to”.
Asked about whether she promised to pair with Lensink, Game said: “I did indicate to her that I really understood that she needed a pair.”
“And had I been told that’s the formal requirement of the parliament, you know, that someone’s not there so I have to pair, well that’s one thing, and that was my initial understanding,” she said.
“But you know, if there’s no requirement for me to pair on a conscience vote, well, I’m not going to pair out on something that I believe in that’s important to my constituents.”
Game said she called government whip Ian Hunter notifying him she was not pairing with Lensink to allow him to make other pairing arrangements.
“I didn’t do something duplicitous to sort of pretend I was going to pair and then try and have it fall through,” she said.
In the end, seven Labor MLCs – Kyam Maher, Ian Hunter and Mira El Dannawi from the Left faction and Emily Bourke, Russell Wortley, Justin Hanson and Reggie Martin from the Right – voted against Hood’s bill along with Greens MLCs Robert Simms and Tammy Franks and SA-Best’s Connie Bonaros.
Supporting the bill was Ben Hood along with fellow Liberal conservatives Nicola Centofanti, Heidi Girolamo and Laura Henderson.
Moderate Liberal Jing Lee’s vote was recorded in support as was Labor Right faction MLCs Clare Scriven and Tung Ngo. Game and independent Frank Pangallo were the other two crossbenchers to support the legislation.
