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Abortion Legislation Bill — In Committee — Part 1 — Establishment of safe areas

10 March, 2020

Summary

This Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) amends the Abortion Legislation Bill to change the framework for the establishment of safe areas. Under the changes in this SOP, an abortion services provider would be able to apply to the Director-General of Health to establish a safe area through the Gazette. This contrasts with the provisions currently in the bill that require an Order in Council to establish a safe area. The threshold for establishing a safe area would be the same as currently proposed in the bill, ensuring these are used when necessary and justifiable as a limit on freedom of expression. This SOP also clarifies the specific activities that are prohibited in a safe area, making these prohibitions more objective. Any breach would be an infringement offence with a $500 penalty—this is a more appropriate response to the nature of the harm being addressed than the current proposal of an offence punishable by up to $1,000 on conviction.

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 474 in the name of Marama Davidson to clause 5 be agreed to.

Mover of amendment

Photo of Marama Davidson
Marama Davidson
Green Party, List

Votes Not passed by a large majority

Amendment not agreed to.

Personal Vote

This was a personal vote (or conscience vote) which meant MPs could decide how to vote on their own, rather than having to follow the party position. Learn more on the official Parliament website.

21 Voted For


96 Voted Against







3 Absent

External References

This work is based on Member of Parliament data from the Office of the Clerk and Parliamentary Services which is licensed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives and/or the Parliamentary Corporation on behalf of Parliamentary Service for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

It also includes public domain content such as voting information from the Parliamentary debates (Hansard) and information about Government Bills.

Image of Marama Davidson (resized, cropped) by The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

All original material is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.