Pro-life advocate Joanna Howe says her ban from parts of South Australia’s upper house is a “total abuse of power”, after Parliament was told she allegedly insulted, intimidated and threatened MPs on the night of a vote about late-term abortion law. Source: ABC News.
Dr Howe said she would “strongly contest” the ban and refuted “every allegation that had been made”.
This week, Liberal politician Jing Lee revealed she felt unsafe and had been put in a compromised position after an encounter with an “external visitor” who made her feel “very vulnerable on the night” of a vote about proposed amendments to abortion laws.
Upper house president Terry Stephens identified the external visitor as Dr Howe, who is a legal professor at the University of Adelaide, and who helped draft the proposed changes.
Mr Stephens said he had received multiple complaints from members of Parliament about Dr Howe’s behaviour in the galleries and areas adjacent to the Legislative Council chamber.
This included a claim that “Dr Howe was observed yelling at the honourable Dennis Hood to discourage him from vacating the chamber in order to provide a pair for the vote”.
Mr Hood agreed to enter a pairing arrangement with Michelle Lensink after Ms Lee reneged on her own arrangement with her Liberal colleague.
Dr Howe told ABC Radio Adelaide yesterday that “no formal complaint or allegation has actually been put to me”.
“I have been denied both procedural and substantive fairness in this case,” she said.
In Parliament, Mr Stephens said MPs should “feel safe in carrying out their parliamentary duties and have confidence that they are free to do so without interference”.
Mr Stephens banned Dr Howe from the upper house, including the public and president’s galleries, and areas adjacent to the chamber, such as the corridors and other shared spaces.
Dr Howe said the ban was an “appalling” abuse of power.
“It’s an affront to Australian democracy – the thought that a member of the public could be banned from the people’s house because a cabal of pro-abortion MPs in the parliament have made anonymous complaints to the president,” she said.
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