Abortion a matter for states, territories: Liberal senator Anne Ruston

A senior Liberal senator has not confirmed if the Coalition’s position on abortion could change, as the opposition rethinks its national platform in the wake of its election decimation.

Labor’s landslide win on May 3 left the Liberals leaderless and exposed severe tensions within the Coalition, with the Nationals faring far better than their blue colleagues and therefore demanding more power.

The Liberal and National party leaders have been hashing out a Coalition agreement, which includes a review of policies.

Anne Ruston — who was opposition health spokeswoman under Peter Dutton — on Sunday kept tight-lipped about whether abortion was up for debate after a push from some in her party.

“As far as I’m concerned, the issue of abortion is something that’s well and truly in the domain of the states and territories and should stay there,” Senator Ruston told the ABC.

“But my understanding is that there is no proposal to make any changes in relation to the small amount of responsibility that the federal parliament has for this.”

Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Liberals senator Alex Antic co-sponsored a bill last year that aimed to force doctors to save a child born alive after an abortion.

A parliamentary inquiry found no basis for the bill and Mr Dutton had ordered the Coalition senators to withdraw it — an order they refused.

The bill would be an unprecedented use of federal powers on the issue.

Abortion access is legal in all states and territories, but it is not federally or constitutionally protected.

Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has described abortion as a “moral dilemma”, while Jacinta Nampijinpa Price — whose shock defection to the Liberal party room added greatly to the Coalition’s internal tensions — tried to put abortion on the national agenda after a vote to wind back access narrowly failed in South Australia last year.

It also popped up in the Queensland state election.

Senator Ruston played down commentary the Liberal Party has shifted too far to the right, saying her party was a “broad church”.

“That’s where we work best, when we’re tolerant of the broad range of views that we have, but our values are all the same,” she said.

“I don’t think anybody in my party doesn’t believe that aspiration is the most important thing we should strive to be able to enable every Australian to be able to achieve.”

Senator Ruston added she was “very happy to be re-elected and looking forward to being part of the broader team nationally to rebuild our party in the interests of a party that reflects modern Australia”.