“To be blunt, shackling an expectant mother, whether in prison or elsewhere, is nothing short of barbaric,” bemoans indigenous advocate JULIE TONGS.

Shackling women in prisons during childbirth is rightly criticised for its potential to threaten maternal and child health.

The shackling entails, in the main, handcuffing one arm and one leg of the expectant mother to the bed on which she has been assigned to give birth to her baby.

Australia, the US, the UK and Japan are among the countries where shackling is documented as a practice in prisons.

To be blunt, such treatment of an expectant mother, whether in prison or elsewhere, is nothing short of barbaric. As far as I am concerned the fact that the expectant mother is at the time serving a term of imprisonment is irrelevant.

I was, therefore, pleased that Victorian independent senator Lidia Thorpe had introduced Bills in the Senate designed to end the practice, across Australia, of chaining or otherwise shackling expectant mothers being held in detention, while giving birth to their baby.

She also introduced a second bill designed to prohibit the forced strip searching by police of children. A long overdue initiative for which I am also extremely thankful.

Considering the seriousness and importance of these two issues and the importance of their passage I attended the Senate debate. 

However, I was not only deeply disappointed but dumbfounded by the decision by the Labor and Liberal parties to in effect support the continuation of the shackling of expectant mothers in detention and the strip searching by police of vulnerable children.

The pathetic excuse proffered by the senators who chose to oppose the Bill was that they claimed it was a matter for the states and territories and they should be left to respond as they chose.

In other words, if the ACT Government, for example, was prepared to risk the lives of babies that might be born at the AMC that was a decision for them to make, and they should be left to do so.

Senator Thorpe responded to the attempt by the Labor Party to wash its hands of the issue, saying: “So I ask all senators who have any decency in their hearts, who have the decency to protect women and children in this country and who have any legal knowledge – and you know we have the power to stop the demonic abuse of women and children – to think about the consequences of your vote: more babies dying, more women dying, more abuse.”

However, in washing their hands of any role of responsibility for the maltreatment of vulnerable women and children, the senators not only demeaned themselves, but abrogated their responsibility to show leadership in protecting those among us at risk of harm.

Interestingly, the majority view was not shared by all senators with ACT independent senator David Pocock delivering a balanced and intelligent speech unmatched, in my opinion, by any other speaker. 

“These bills are about our values as a country. Simply put, they say that we shouldn’t strip-search children in Australia and we shouldn’t shackle women giving birth in this country,” he said.

“Clearly, those two things are not radical propositions. In fact, I think if you spoke to most Australians about that, they would be shocked that those two things are happening in our country and they would be urging the parliament to ensure that they don’t.

“And here we have an opportunity to do exactly that. Yes, there is a lack of comprehensive public data about how many Australian children are strip-searched each year, but we know that it happens. And it shouldn’t happen. 

“We know it is happening to children as young as 10 years. We know that at one point it was happening as regularly as one child every four days. We also know that, unfortunately and unsurprisingly, First Nations children are disproportionately affected. And sadly, on a number of indicators the ACT falls well behind. Our youth detention rate is shockingly double the national rate”.

Regrettably Senator Thorpe’s motion was lost and it was, unsurprisingly, left to the Greens and independents to stand up for justice and basic human rights.

Julie Tongs is CEO of the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services.

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