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Greg Smith still pushing the anti-abortion line
Greg Smith, the Liberal candidate for Epping, has still not mentioned his past as president of Right to Life to constituents, and the local newspapers seem content to let him get away with it. One candidate likes to privately refer to this as "the elephant in the room" because in political circles Smith's past is notorious, but it is not being discussed in the open so that most voters in Epping are unaware of this fairly important piece of information.
Perhaps Smith believes that if he leaves this alone people will think his past is indeed in his past and he will not seek to introduce new anti-abortion legislation when in Parliament. If that is the impression he was trying to create then he really ought to have stayed out of the RU486 debate recently &emdash; submission 483 to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee's Inquiry into Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of Ministerial Responsibility for Approval of RU486) Bill 2006, which appears on pages 165 to 175 of the report, was authored by Smith in his personal capacity and sought to discourage the Federal Parliament from its recent decision to, in effect, remove the ministerial ban on approving the abortion pill.
While the submission (available here) states a number of grounds for opposing the removal of the ministerial veto, among those grounds (on pages 168-171) are that the Therapeutic Goods Administration would not consider, in approving trials, whether the use of the drug would be a crime &emdash; essentially this is a classic anti-abortion argument.
On page 171 Smith claims that abortion is illegal throughout Australia &emdash; this is a gross oversimplification of the true legal position, however this oversimplification no doubt represents Smith's view of what the law should be.
This submission was made in January and demonstrates that Greg Smith still opposes women having the option of aborting an unwanted pregnancy, and that he is willing to frame the law so as to enforce his view.
Given the importance of this issue to women, it is a matter of some disgrace that neither of our local newspapers has raised the issue.
Abortion
Have you seen this:
Revealing statements made by former abortion industry personnel.
These are direct quotes from men and women who worked in abortion facilities.
http://heavensdaydreamer.blogspot.com/2007/03/end-abortion.html
Bruce
Not really the point
I have seen material of that kind as well as much more graphic material, however I do not want to get sidetracked at the moment on whether abortion is wrong or not or whether abortion should be illegal or not (and these are separate questions). The issue I am presently concerned about is the right of voters to know what they are getting and the dishonesty of the candidate.
Greg Smith has sent out flyers containing biographical information describing his community activities. When he speaks in public he goes through a list of his community activities. When he does this, he omits his past presidency of Right To Life. This is deliberate, and while it may not technically be a fraud it is a deception and the omission goes to the honesty of the candidate. This is not just a miscellaneous item that would not fit &emdash; it is his single biggest voluntary community activity.
Whether you agree with abortion or not, surely you must agree that voters have the right to know who they are voting for. Every time Smith authorises a flyer that includes a bio, every time he gets up to speak and mentions his community activities, he is engaging in a deception against the voters of Epping &emdash; he is continuing a pattern of dishonest behaviour.