Liberal Party turns its back on women and babies

1/12/04
Western Australian women and their babies have been dealt a bitter blow by Colin Barnett after the Liberal Party blocked reforms to ease the skyrocketing costs of obstetrics.
The Liberal Party today rejected, for the second time, crucial laws that would have protected obstetricians from being sued by their patients' decades after treating them.
Attorney General Jim McGinty said he was bitterly disappointed that the Liberal Party had rejected the laws.
Mr McGinty said the legislation would have overhauled archaic statute of limitations laws, which allowed people to sue obstetricians for negligence up to 24 years after a birth.
"That constant threat of legal action has driven up insurance premiums which in turn has contributed to a shortage of obstetricians in the private sector," he said.
"By rejecting the laws for the second time, the Liberal Party is saying it does not care about women and their newborn babies or the doctors that care for them.
"The State now faces a shortage of obstetricians, an increase in insurance premiums and a rise in the cost of medical care for women in Western Australia."
The Attorney General said the State Government had worked co-operatively with the Australian Medical Association in WA to draft sensible and modern laws.
The Limitation Bill would have given certainty to obstetricians by winding back the time limit for patients to take legal action from 24 years to six years.
Mr McGinty said the overhaul of the Limitations Act would also have provided people who suffered latent injury or disease - such as child sex abuse victims or people exposed to chemicals - with the ability to take legal action for the first time.
Under current law, people are unable to take civil action more than six years after the date they were actually injured.
In many cases, the statute of limitations runs out even before victims are aware they have a physical injury or illness, or that a particular person was responsible.
Minister's office: 9220 5000