It may have escaped the
attention of much of the media, but a feisty speech given by Natasha
Stott-Despoja in the Senate last week has certainly got people talking.
Minor chaos broke out in the Upper House last Thursday when Democrats
leader Lyn Allison introduced an amendment to a motion supporting
women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health services ahead of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The motion was
loudly opposed by the Nationals’ Ron Boswell, saying he refused to vote
for “abortion-on-demand.” And that’s when Stott-Despoja took the floor,
speaking in defence of women’s rights until she was out of time and
forced to stop:

One thing I do take from Senator Boswell’s speech is when
he says that this is a test for the chamber. He is not kidding. This is
the first. This is the flag. This is the first signal to some of us in
this place, men and women, that this is what the next three years —
potentially longer — are going to be about. It is about seeing
everything through the prism of women’s rights, particularly women’s
reproductive rights, and it is the first king hit. It is the first test
for those of us who believe that men and women are equal and that women
have the right to ‘sexual and reproductive health services’.

Then she issued this challenge:

Who are the anachronistic, outdated conservative people in
this place who will deny women their rights and indeed will not put
forward positive, constructive ways of alleviating poverty, death,
disease, AIDS, HIV—the works? Stand up and be counted now, gentlemen,
because I am ready for this debate. If the next three years are going
to be seen in this prism whereby you are going to vote down a motion
like this—a motion that is inoffensive, progressive, constructive and
supported by government— bring on the fight, guys!

The full transcript of the speech can be found here.