Summary

Edit

The majority voted against amendments introduced by West Australian Senator Jordon Steele-John (Greens), which means they failed.

What did the amendments do?

Senator Steele-John explained that:

In moving these amendments today I want to dedicate them to the 150,000 Australian women who received surgically implanted transvaginal mesh. Most commonly, these procedures were undertaken, these devices were sought, in relation to the treatment of pelvic prolapse, stress related urinary incontinence or, additionally, complications resulting from childbirth. These were things that people sought to access, devices that they sought to have implanted in order to treat conditions that were causing them great distress and having a profound impact on their lives. These devices were promoted to women as being safe, and they were not safe.

When women spoke up about the reality of what these devices were doing to them—the pain, the blood, the inability to engage in intimate relations with their partners—they were dismissed; they were ignored year after year. And women continued to suffer. This medical scandal resulted in the largest women's based health class action in Australian history—and rightly so, given that this was one of the most profound failures in medical regulation and one of the most dangerous products ever allowed into human bodies since thalidomide. Australian women led the world in holding manufacturers and regulators to account. Australian women, although they had experienced the most horrendous mistreatment at the hands of the manufacturers, at the hands of medical practitioners and at the hands of dismissive regulators, came forward to their parliament in 2018 and trusted their parliament, gave evidence to their parliament, went to their MPs and said, 'I am willing to talk, on the public record, about some of the most personal, some of the most intimate impacts of medical device failure—in the public and in the media—and I do this so that this may never happen again to anybody else.' That's what they did.

Four years ago the Senate inquiry handed down its recommendations as a result of that evidence. Finally, a government has coughed up a response to some of those recommendations. Yet what we see here today is the half-baked misimplementation of the very first recommendation of that inquiry. The very first recommendation of that inquiry was to create a mandatory reporting system that covered healthcare practitioners so that, if in the future such a device is in circulation, causing pain and harm, the regulator will have the data to alert the community, yet what the government has put forward is a mandatory reporting framework solely for hospitals, for healthcare facilities, missing the vital role of general practitioners in reporting. The reality is that when a device such as these malfunctions—and it relates particularly to gynaecological issues—people are not going to go straight to their ED; they're going to want to talk with somebody they have a relationship with. Because this is clouded in shame, in a context where women's pain is so often dismissed, people are going to want to talk to a person they have a built trust with, and that is often their GP.

Amendment text

See OpenAustralia.org.au for the amendment text.

Votes Not passed by a small majority

Nobody rebelled against their party.

Party Votes
Australian Greens (109% turnout) 12 Yes 0 No
Penny Allman-Payne Queensland Yes
Dorinda Cox WA Yes
Mehreen Faruqi NSW Yes
Sarah Hanson-Young SA Yes
Nick McKim Tasmania Yes
Barbara Pocock SA Yes
Janet Rice Victoria Yes
David Shoebridge NSW Yes
Jordon Steele-John WA Yes
Lidia Thorpe Victoria Yes
Larissa Waters Queensland Yes
Peter Whish-Wilson Tasmania Yes
Australian Labor Party (72% turnout) 0 Yes 18 No
Tim Ayres NSW No
Anthony Chisholm Queensland No
Katy Gallagher ACT No
Nita Green Queensland No
Karen Grogan SA No
Jenny McAllister NSW No
Deborah O'Neill NSW No
Fatima Payman WA No
Helen Polley Tasmania No
Louise Pratt WA No
Tony Sheldon NSW No
Marielle Smith SA No
Glenn Sterle WA No
Jana Stewart Victoria No
Anne Urquhart Tasmania No
Jess Walsh Victoria No
Murray Watt Queensland No
Linda White Victoria No
Catryna Bilyk Tasmania Absent
Carol Brown Tasmania Absent
Raff Ciccone Victoria Absent
Patrick Dodson WA Absent
Don Farrell SA Absent
Malarndirri McCarthy NT Absent
Penny Wong SA Absent
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price NT Country Liberal Party Absent
Andrew McLachlan SA Deputy President Absent
David Pocock ACT Independent Absent
Lidia Thorpe Victoria Independent Absent
Jacqui Lambie Network (100% turnout) 2 Yes 0 No
Jacqui Lambie Tasmania Yes
Tammy Tyrrell Tasmania Yes
Liberal National Party (0% turnout) Absent
Matthew Canavan Queensland Absent
James McGrath Queensland Absent
Liberal Party (17% turnout) 0 Yes 4 No
Wendy Askew Tasmania No
Richard Colbeck Tasmania No
Sarah Henderson Victoria No
Anne Ruston SA No
Alex Antic SA Absent
Simon Birmingham SA Absent
Andrew Bragg NSW Absent
Slade Brockman WA Absent
Michaelia Cash WA Absent
Claire Chandler Tasmania Absent
Jonathon Duniam Tasmania Absent
David Fawcett SA Absent
Hollie Hughes NSW Absent
Jane Hume Victoria Absent
Kerrynne Liddle SA Absent
Matt O'Sullivan WA Absent
James Paterson Victoria Absent
Marise Payne NSW Absent
Gerard Rennick Queensland Absent
Linda Reynolds WA Absent
Paul Scarr Queensland Absent
Dean Smith WA Absent
David Van Victoria Absent
National Party (0% turnout) Absent
Ross Cadell NSW Absent
Perin Davey NSW Absent
Susan McDonald Queensland Absent
Bridget McKenzie Victoria Absent
Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party (50% turnout) 1 Yes 0 No
Malcolm Roberts Queensland Yes
Pauline Hanson Queensland Absent
Sue Lines WA President Absent
Ralph Babet Victoria United Australia Party Yes
Totals (51% turnout) 16 Yes – 22 No