Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting the Strip Searching of Children) Bill 2026, Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting Shackling During Childbirth) Bill 2026

Senator THORPE (Victoria—Independent VIC Whip) (09:38): In 2026, people can be shackled while giving birth and children can have their clothes removed by adults to examine their bodies—legally. Today, by passing my two private senator's bills, this could change. The people sitting in this room have the power to end these barbaric, inhumane, traumatic and totally unnecessary practices.

I want to share the stories of two people who gave evidence to the inquiries into my bills. Proud Yamatji, Noongar, Wongi and Pitjantjatjara woman Heather Calgaret was a mother to four beautiful children whom she loved dearly. She was the rock of her family.

In 2019, while on remand, Heather gave birth to her baby whilst shackled to the hospital bed. In November 2021, Heather died in custody after being given a high dose of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, even though she had no history of opiate use. She was found in critical condition by her sister, Suzzane.

She was 30 years old. Speaking at the hearing into my bill, Suzzane said, and I quote: Heather was my sister. She was a mother and a deeply loved member of our family.

When in custody and giving birth, she was treated with cruelty that no human being should ever have to endure. She was shackled and restrained while bringing life into the world. My sister was not just restrained while giving birth; she was also shackled when holding my niece for the first time.

She only got to hold her with one arm. It definitely made a big psychological, emotional wreck of her when she came back into custody because she was only allowed two more hours with baby after giving birth and then sent back to prison. That just ruined her.

I sat with her while she cried for the next two months, and she continued to cry, but it didn't help at all. No woman should ever have their most vulnerable and sacred moments turned into a scene of torture. Life is precious.

Given the circumstances of everything she went through and now her passing away, her story needs to be told. It needs to be heard. And there definitely need to be changes in how they deal with their workplace.

She's not here anymore, and it's really hard to cope and to deal with not having her presence here anymore and with everything that she went through. I feel I've taken on a lot of the load now; I'm her voice and I need to speak for her, because if I don't, then who will? No-one.

They need to understand the severity of shackling during childbirth. As I said, it's inhumane. I don't even know how it came about as something that should be done.

The most precious moments in life are when a mother gives birth to their child, and they should not ever have to be like that. And now that my sister's not around, it just makes it even harder. There was all the stress and torment that she went through—psychological, emotional and mental—with everything that happened.

Then losing her—no-one will ever know. But it is a very dangerous thing that they still have occurring, and it needs to be gone. And this is not just for Indigenous but non-Indigenous too—for all women.

We bring life into this world, and it should not ever be brought in in the way it had been for my sister. I couldn't imagine giving birth while being shackled by one leg and one hand to the railing while giving birth. It's insane.

There are no words for it. And what about strip searching? Let me tell you just a little bit more about what it's really like in practice.

This is what Sharon, an Aboriginal woman, experienced as a girl, and I quote: A male cop entered with the Sergeant, the door was closed behind them and I was told to remove my belt, jewellery and shoes and place them on the desk. I was asked if I was wearing a bra and I answered that I was. Sergeant told me to remove it and also place it on the desk.

I started to panic inside, my heart was beating and I started to shake in fear because I seriously believed these two men were intending to rape me as I had no knowledge of the way the system worked and I didn't know about strip searches or any of that stuff. But I did know about rape due to having been a victim of it only months beforehand. I reluctantly took my bra off by undoing it at the back and pulling the straps down through the armholes of my shirt and then pulling my arms back up through those armholes leaving my shirt still on but only hanging by the neck hole.

I stepped forward to put my bra on the desk and was told to move back against the wall and to lift my shirt to expose my breasts one side at a time. I was also instructed that once my breast was uncovered, I had to lift them up with my hand so they could see I was not hiding anything under them. That done, I was allowed to put my shirt back down and was told to take my skirt off and the Sergeant motioned to place that on the desk along with the other items.

I couldn't contain my feelings any longer and burst into tears saying that I didn't want to take it off. He said that if I didn't, he would have to remove it himself. And he took a step forward so I unzipped it from the back and slid it downwards, knelt down with my back still against the wall, picked it up and placed it on the desk.

I was then standing in only a t-shirt and a tiny pair of knickers feeling very exposed, vulnerable, afraid and confused. The Sergeant told me to pull my knickers down to mid-thigh and to part my legs slightly. I was still afraid and now even more embarrassed because I was also bleeding and had a tampon in which had leaked onto my underwear as I had no means of changing it.

He made a derogatory comment in regards to my knickers being dirty and asked when I had last bothered to change them. They both stared at my pubic area for a few seconds before he told me to stand on one leg and lift the other one and then the same on the other side. Finally, I was told to turn around to face the wall, take a step backwards from it and bend forward and lift each leg again.

I was then allowed to turn back around, pull my knickers back up and put my skirt back on. I was not allowed to put my bra back on though. The Sergeant took me out of the room and down to the cells where the adult female prisoners were kept.

By now I believe I was in a bit of shock. I had stopped crying, relieved that I hadn't been raped, but feeling like I had been. If that's not sexual assault, what is it?

The inquiries into these two bills received overwhelming support from medical organisations, legal organisations, oversight and ombudsman bodies, human rights organisations and so many people who wrote in about their own experience of these practices and what these experiences did to them. Medical organisations have been writing to the Labor Party and the coalition to ask for change as late as yesterday.

So each of you in this chamber has a choice. I know that many of you are horrified by these practices from the many conversations I've had with senators across all parties. You can vote to have these barbaric abuses continue, or you can vote today to end them.

The committee reports into both these bills said that these are state and territory matters—that it's not up to this Labor government to legislate on these matters. But this government has the external affairs power to legislate on this. This is backed by the evidence received by this inquiry from a range of legal bodies and others.

We shouldn't expect state and territory governments to ban the abuse they are themselves causing, when this government won't do anything themselves. That will just ensure the abuse continues. The committee reports also raise a number of specific issues—asking for an offence to be added to the bill, prohibiting shackling, asking for monitoring and recordkeeping, asking for definitions to be clarified.

I've introduced amendments addressing all of those issues, and I'm more than happy to strengthen these bills. Tabitha Lean, organising member of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, said it best at the hearings into these bills: … governments across this country are getting elected off the backs of their strong law and order stance. … … … We are always left out of the conversation, but we're always the ones at the sharper end of the policies that the government comes out with. … … … … criminalised, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people are disposable in this community.

We're very rarely around the table to discuss these issues, and, when we are, we get a short amount of time to do it. I would love to see politicians, more broadly, reframe this debate. But it's not about that.

It's about abolishing it ... I don't know how you can actually shave off any of the grotesque flourishes of sexually assaulting children and make that more palatable … to people. You just have to be brave and actually make the decision.

If you suffer consequences … then that's what you do to protect the children in our community. 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—because there are a lot of lawyers in here, and you know that legally we have the power in this place to change and to stop this demonic abuse of women and children—to think about the real consequences of your vote: more babies dying, more women dying, more abuse, more paedophilia and more rapes.

That's what you're voting for. So think about that consequence before you jump up and shut it down and join forces with each other. Think about people like Tabitha, people like Sharon and people like Heather Calgaret, who should still be with us today.

Just do the right thing by them. It's all we're asking. Do the right thing with the power that this place has.

We signed up to end torture through OPCAT. This is torture. We signed up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This breaches that. So give your party a conscience vote, because I've seen the shock horror of the women in your parties. Even One Nation are shocked.

Just do the right thing. Stop the torture.