Queensland parliament live: Katter wants abortion back on agenda; Bleijie seeks new powers to fast-track development

Queensland parliament has resoundingly shot down a Katter’s Australian Party bid to stop an amendment it claimed would boost access to pregnancy-ending drugs.

All members of parliament sitting on Tuesday, outside Katter’s party, voted against the disallowance motion.

Leader Robbie Katter brought the motion to parliament to prevent a tweak to Queensland’s Medicines and Poisons Act that he said would expand access to the pregnancy termination drug MS-2 Step.

“We stand for pro-life, and we’ll continue to do that, and we feel this disallowance motion is one of those things – it’s just that continual encroachment, that incremental creep, on these values that will continue to happen. There’s no finish line on this stuff,” he said.

Hundreds have rallied in Brisbane to support abortion rights, hours before the state parliament was due to hear a motion from Katter’s Australia Party to restrict access to termination medicine.

The reproductive healthcare rally, held in the Botanic Gardens, was attended by Labor MPs and union figures who decried the latest attempt to force debate on abortion access.

“Technicalities aside, what we’re actually dealing with is pretty much a disingenuous attempt by two bloke members of parliament … to reopen a debate about abortion,” Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King told the crowd.

The disallowance motion hinges on a tweak to Queensland’s Medicines and Poisons Act, enabling a segment of nurses and midwives to prescribe and administer the abortion medication MS–2 Step.

Another new element out of parliament today: a bill introduced by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.

The bill is a big one, with 89-pages of explanatory notes covering its significant changes to the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act.

In his speech, Bleijie said the bill was seeking to capitalise on the recent bilateral framework signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump for an accelerated pipeline of priority critical minerals and rare earth projects by and for the nations.

Draft changes will allow the declaration of State Strategic Projects and new powers for the government – and Bleijie, as State Development Minister – to deliver these.

With May having marked domestic and family violence prevention month, Labor has largely used question time today to attack minister Amanda Camm for her actions in the space.

Particularly, whether a reluctance to face media questions about the disclosures of her relationship with cabinet colleague Tim Mander led to her only issuing one media release and holding a single media conference.

“I can assure him [Opposition Leader Steven Miles] that I stand firm in my integrity,” Camm said in one of her responses to a variety of questions lobbed from the Labor benches.

“While those opposite are worried about how many media releases and who’s on the front page of the paper, and the social media content that they’re pushing out to scare women at the moment, Mr Speaker, what we’re focused on is meeting with stakeholders.