David Norris (Independent)

I join my colleagues in seeking a debate on the siting of the new children's hospital. I raised this matter some time ago on the Order of Business, well in advance of the Government's decision on the matter. What I asked for then is what is now being sought, an international review of the siting. Quite a number of consultants from the different hospitals are seeking such a review. While the Mater Hospital is my neighbour, and I do not wish to be unneighbourly, the site may in the long term be too small with inadequate car-parking, access problems and no maternity facility. We should examine this choice of site again. I was assured such a review would take less than six weeks. The six weeks have elapsed and I regret that, perhaps as has been suggested, this course of action was not taken for political reasons.

I call for a debate on human rights in China. Senator O'Toole and I, over a considerable period, have raised the matter of organ harvesting in China. Last week this was raised at the committee on foreign affairs with a presentation from Mr. David Kilgour, a senior Canadian politician and former Secretary of State for Asian affairs who speaks with some authority. His report was worrying. Telephone traffic has been monitored in which orders were placed for livers and kidneys by people in Japan and elsewhere. It was like a butcher's shop with spare parts for purchase. While this has always been denied, various reports in today's newspapers quote a senior Chinese official accepting organ harvesting occurred but that it was only from executed prisoners. We take a view of the execution of people and the harvesting of organs. It is claimed it is voluntary but it is very difficult to be involuntary when one has a bullet in the back of one's neck.