The Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi has triggered messy Coalition divisions on the floor of the Senate, with some government frontbenchers voting in favour of a motion opposing Medicare funding for the termination of pregnancies on gender grounds.
Bernardi proposed a series of provocative motions on Thursday morning covering abortion funding, greater scrutiny of the activist group GetUp and White Ribbon Australia’s support for abortion, including late-term terminations – which had Coalition figures cantering across the chamber.
The motions on hot-button internal issues for the Coalition were moved in a week when the government is being divided over how to respond to this week’s historic yes vote in the same sex marriage postal survey.
Bernardi’s motion opposing Medicare funding failed on the floor of the chamber, but it was backed by government senators Eric Abetz, Barry O’Sullivan, Zed Seselja, Matt Canavan and Anne Ruston, as well as the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson.
A motion critical of a statement on the website of the anti-violence organisation White Ribbon Australia supporting nationally consistent access to safe and legal abortion, including late-term abortion, in all states and territories, also won support from government senators, including Mathias Cormann.
Government senators also supported a motion that noted that GetUp was “seed-funded by organisations closely connected with Mr George Soros, a renowned globalist and funder of socialist politicians and causes; has provided and received support for left-of-centre political parties, trade unions and other organisations; and has actively campaigned like a political party, and in every such instance, against right-of-centre politicians during election periods”.
The motion said GetUp was “deserving of greater electoral regulation or scrutiny, given its impact upon our political process, economic development, support for litigation against major job-creating projects, border protection policies, national security, sovereignty and our institutions”.
The procedural skirmish prompted not only chaos on the floor for around 30 minutes – with Coalition figures evidently unsure about which way to vote – but also angry exchanges between senators.
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, infuriated by the abortion and White Ribbon motions, declared her colleagues “a bunch of misogynistic ...” before being cut off and counselled by the Senate president, Scott Ryan.
Hanson-Young persisted: “This is about rape victims having access to safe and legal abortion. That’s what you just voted against.”
The outspoken Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald declared Hanson-Young a “dill” before also being rebuked by Ryan for using unparliamentary terminology.
Macdonald then rounded on Ryan: “What kind of ruling is that?”
Macdonald ran against Ryan on Monday in an internal ballot to decide the government’s candidate for Senate president, a position left vacant after the departure of Stephen Parry, who was felled courtesy of the citizenship debacle.
Ryan, a Victorian Liberal and former frontbencher, prevailed in the ballot.
