Campaign Up-date

The last two weeks have been quite positive. It started with the Greens releasing the statement "Greens will move to protect women's right to choose safe homebirth" on the 31st of July. This was followed very quickly by the Australian Newspaper saying "Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon revealed yesterday she was looking at whether the government could accommodate home births in the $25 million indemnity scheme" (this was released just one day after the Green's announcement). On the 4th of August - a rally outside of Nicola Roxan's office was attended in support by Senator Steve Fielding (one of the key senators that the legislation will have to get past in the senate). On the 6th of August the Senate Inquiry into the homebirth issue was held and made for some fascinating viewing. The senators didn't hold back on repeatedly asking the department of health and medical organisations why has homebirth been excluded and why isn't their consultation with the key stakeholders i.e. consumer and independent midwifery groups (the report for this is due to be released on Monday 17th of August). On the 13th of August - the coalition discussed homebirth at length in the Party Room and Peter Dutton (opposition Health Minister) has come out publicly in support of homebirth.