Posted By Bernard Gaynor on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 9:38 am | 5 comments

At worst, Jenny Macklin is a liar.

At best, she is just incompetent and completely unaware what kinds of cash her government department is throwing around.

Either way, she does not deserve to be the Minister for Families.

That’s because she has again denied the fact that her department, which supposedly exists to help families, is actually paying out great wads of tax-payer cash to parents who kill their children.

The latest denial came via a personal letter emailed to me by Jenny’s Chief of Staff, Abbie Clark, after I asked about this issue.

Abbie claims, on behalf of her pro-abortion Emily’s List mistress, that Paid Parental Leave and the Baby Bonus are not paid out after abortion. You can read the letter here.

I don’t know how much Abbie gets paid, but she is certainly not getting paid to check the facts.

Unlike Abbie, I like to check the facts. After I received her emailed letter, I promptly jumped on to my handy Google fact checker and typed in the words “termination” and “centrelink” and “pregnancy”.

And following an arduous 30 second search I found a website published by the South Australian government explaining that the Baby Bonus and Paid Parental Leave scheme are both available for women who kill their children.

Now, if the South Australian government is prepared to publish this information, it’s because someone, somewhere in Jenny Macklin’s department is mailing out post-abortion cheques.

In fact, and this is the really scary part, the only segment of this webpage devoted to dealing with “perinatal loss” that talks about money is the bit about abortion.

I guess you might say that the South Australian government has recognised the target audience and given them the sales pitch up front.

After getting the financial disclosures out of the way for women considering the “fetal demise” of their growing child, it helpfully provides some detailed information about termination procedures.

For instance, women should be aware that “D & E usually precludes viewing and handling of the fetus”.

I guess that’s a nice way of informing a mother that after her child has been cut into little pieces she probably won’t be able to hug it goodbye.

Also, it states that if the aborted child shows signs of life that its Apgar score is to be recorded, as well as its time of birth and death.

Yes, you read that correctly. An official government website admits that abortions can result in live births.

And yes, you also read that correctly. An official government website that provides handy hints about medical procedures in case of live birth coldly states that after the child’s pulse rate, appearance and ability to breathe are noted, the medical practitioner should wait around until it dies. And then write down the time.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like state-sanctioned murder. And the government will also stump up with the cash once the job is done.

Now, for those who might be interested, Jenny Macklin and her Labor buddies have told us over and over and over again that the Baby Bonus and Paid Parental Leave are not payable following abortion.

And they simply cannot be trusted.

In fact, one can only assume that a government that is so demonstrably unwilling to clarify the law actually supports post-abortion payments. With your taxes.

And it is obvious, despite Jenny’s many protestations in the media, that the South Australian government understands that the actual law which Jenny administers allows these payments.

Jenny said in 2008 that the government would close the Baby Bonus abortion loophole.

Jenny told us in 2010 that it was a disgraceful suggestion that a doctor who was prepared to kill a child would also be prepared to certify that it was then delivered. But they do and here is the proof.

Again in 2010, Labor denied these payments were being made.

And in 2013, Labor is still denying the truth. There is another term for it: lying.

But Labor will soon be gone for good.

So the big question is this: will Tony Abbott and the Coalition close the loophole in the law they brought in?

I can only hope so.

Unfortunately, this hope is shaky because in the past Coalition members have abused those who have raised this issue and now Tony Abbott is ignoring it.

Yes, it is an unfortunate truth that when Family First Senator Steve Fielding raised this issue in parliament in 2010 and suggested an amendment to clarify the law, it was not Labor who went after him. Barnaby Joyce shot him down with both barrels.

Barnaby was the one who accused Senator Fielding of playing politics, of creating a wedge and of pursuing base political gain. So no amendment was ever brought in to stop these abortion payments.

Maybe Barnaby’s vicious reaction was because of another unfortunate truth, also raised in that debate: the laws that allow Baby Bonus payments following abortion were not brought in by Labor, but by Barnaby Joyce and his colleagues.

Now, I imagine that this loophole was not deliberate. But it is there and it was implemented by the Coalition.

And nearly ten years later, no one from the Coalition is willing to address this issue publicly. Maybe they are just pursuing an election victory. I wonder if Barnaby thinks that is base political gain.

This raises alarm bells, especially as Tony Abbott is running around Australia, spruiking a Paid Parental Leave scheme that will pay up to $75,000.

Jenny Macklin had the decency to respond to my inquiry, even if it was just to lie.

Tony Abbott has not responded at all. It’s time he did.