Labor, Coalition block bills banning childbirth shackling, child strip-searches

Queensland Liberal Scarr breaks ranks to condemn major-party decision

The Australian Labor Party and the Coalition have blocked a Senate vote on legislation that would have banned the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth and ended the strip-searching of children. Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe introduced the bills, telling the chamber that “in 2026 people can be shackled while giving birth, and children can also have their clothes removed by adults to examine their bodies legally.”

Thorpe argued that senators had the power to end what she called “barbaric, inhumane traumatic and totally unnecessary practices.” “The people sitting in this room have the power to end these barbaric, inhumane traumatic and totally unnecessary practices,” she told the Senate. The two bills would have prevented shackling during childbirth and stopped children from being strip-searched.

The government declined to support the bills on jurisdictional grounds, saying that “the responsibility of criminal justice system predominantly sits with state and territory governments.” The Coalition said it “understands the intent” of the legislation but also would not back its passage.

One Liberal senator broke ranks. Queensland Liberal Senator Paul Scarr described himself as “deeply concerned” by the Australia-wide practice and vowed to raise the issue with Queensland Attorney General Deb Frecklington. Scarr also urged the prime minister to convene a national cabinet meeting to address the issue.

“What I’ve heard deeply concerns me and I do hope, that this vote shouldn’t be an end to this matter, we’ve got to do better than this and we’ve got to look at ways this issue can be addressed,” Scarr told the chamber.

Greens leader David Shoebridge criticized both major parties for their refusal to back the bills. “The Labor party and the Coalition come in here and say it’s a matter for states and territories if they want to shackle women to a bed while they’re giving birth we’ll just let them do that,” he told the Senate. “Don’t torture women giving birth and don’t strip-search children.”

The only available data on incarcerated women giving birth in Australia dates to 2017, when 25 women gave birth in custody, according to the Guardian.

The Bangkok Rules, adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly fifteen years before the vote, state that prison should be a last resort for pregnant women and that “instruments of restraint shall never be used on women during labour, during birth and immediately after birth.” The rules are “regularly flouted” around the world despite their unanimous adoption, according to the Guardian.