It was a moment many thought might never happen, the victorious end to an “arduous battle” for medical privacy that brought Labor and Nationals politicians together – and thrust a small clinic on an Albury side street into the spotlight.
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“We’ve been there 15 years,” said Kathy Lewis, the doctor at Englehardt Street’s Fertility Control Clinic.
“And we’ve been hitting our head against a brick wall for about 12 of those.”
At a Safe Access Zone celebration held in Albury on Saturday, campaigners, politicians and women who experienced harassment outside the clinic greeted each other like who had been through battle together.
Albury deputy mayor Amanda Cohn said it was disappointing that Albury’s clinic had to play such a significant role in uniting two opposing political forces and changing the law.
“It’s been such a problem here for so long it got statewide attention I suppose it shows how significant the level of confrontation was here,” she said.
Nationals’ Leslie Williams, who sponsored the successful bill in the legislative assembly, said as the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural and Regional Health she had ‘no hesitation’ when approached to sponsor the bill – because it was a regional health issue.
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“There was this misconception this was a city issue, it didn’t happen regionally, but of course you know here in Albury it was probably the worst,” she said.
“The worst of humanity outside these clinics in your own community.”
Ms Williams said achieving Safe Access Zones was “one of the most important parts of my political career”.
“It was so abhorrent, it was unbelievable to me that here in the 21st century people in NSW couldn't access health services without being harassed,” she said.
“I’ve learnt from my time in parliament often the issues that are most important take the longest to achieve.”
National MP Trevor Khan, who co-sponsored the bill with Labor MP Penny Sharpe said the pair worked closely together for 10 – 11 months on the bill.
He said there was ‘a collective trust the outcome could be achieved’ that allowed them to share candidly across party lines information that if leaked could prove embarrassing to their respective parties and jeopardise the bill’s success.
He said they couldn’t tell the public but they knew they had the numbers well before the vote after Leslie Williams, Bronnie Taylor and Sarah Mitchell convinced the “old, white men” in the Nationals partyroom to support the bill.
“It was simply the acceptance of this is the right thing to do,” he said.
Mr Khan said the issue proved how important diversity in the partyroom was.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
