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Australian politics live: Lambie compares ‘dangerous’ Hanson to Trump; NSW One Nation leader wants abortion ‘stopped’
Newman later said he misspoke, as critics said the bill would reopen abortion debate and lacks enough support to pass the upper house.
On Tuesday night, NSW One Nation leader Mike Newman addressed an anti-abortion rally in Sydney, declaring his party would seek to "stop" abortion rights in the state if elected.
The rally supported a private member's bill from Libertarian MP John Ruddick, which seeks to outlaw abortions performed for the "sole purpose of sex selection" despite existing health guidelines.
A 2020 NSW Health review identified 15,973 terminations between 2019 and 2020, finding only 13 cases flagged for sex selection, with 10 likely being reporting errors rather than actual gender-based terminations.
Following criticism, Newman backtracked on Wednesday, claiming he "misspoke" at the rally and that One Nation opposes late-term and sex-selective procedures, not abortion "outright."
NSW Premier Chris Minns criticized Newman's shifting stance, while Greens MP Amanda Cohn described the bill as a "thinly veiled attempt" to re-criminalize reproductive healthcare with no evidence of the problem.
A significant political storm is brewing in Australia, marked by sharp exchanges between prominent figures and renewed debates over contentious social issues. Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie recently drew a striking comparison between One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and form US President Donald Trump, laboring Hanson's political approach as dangerous.