The Liberal-National MP who rebelled against Premier David Crisafulli on abortion has said he never believed the party’s insistent election-campaign message that there would be no change to the laws on termination of pregnancy.
Mackay MP Nigel Dalton also said he hoped his move to cross the floor in an attempt to force a vote on the Crisafulli government’s gag on debating the sensitive issue would reignite a wider discussion and push to change abortion legislation.
In the weeks following the 2024 Queensland election, Crisafulli rushed a motion through parliament to ban any bills or debate on abortion laws after the issue threatened to derail his campaign.
The extraordinary move silenced political rivals on abortion and shut down potential moves from his own backbench who had previously voiced their desire to repeal Queensland’s termination of pregnancy laws.
On Tuesday, crossbench MP Robbie Katter, the state leader of Katter’s Australian Party and vocal advocate of restricting access to abortion, sought parliament’s approval to move a motion he had flagged that would reverse Crisafulli’s gag.
Dalton defied his party’s position and crossed the floor during the vote, with LNP government members comfortably defeating the motion.
In an interview with abortion reform advocate Joanna Howe, Dalton said he was motivated to break ranks because he was uncomfortable to have supported the gag in 2024.
He also said he regretted not voicing his position during the election campaign.
“This is my time to redeem myself in the eyes of the public, say sorry, but also in the eyes of God – that’s who I serve, I don’t serve anybody else,” he said in the interview posted online.
“This is a personal response, this is me getting right with God, getting right with the community that have voted for me.
“There are going to be some people in the Mackay electorate who think this is the worst decision I’ve ever made but I know there are plenty of people in Mackay who are going to say, ‘thank you, you stood up for what is right’.”
During the 2024 election, Crisafulli was dogged for his vague and repeated assurance that changing abortion laws was “not part of our plan”.
This message was awkward in regional press conferences alongside candidates who had previously advocated for a change to Queensland’s laws.
In the interview posted online this week, Dalton said: “I hope, in some ways, by standing up and saying this and doing this, we can actually draw attention to what the abortion act actually says in Queensland.
“I stood in press conferences in Mackay alongside other members who are now in the government and we said there would be no change – no change to the abortion laws,” he said.
“There probably won’t be any changes but I didn’t believe that.”
The state government has sought to downplay Dalton’s parliamentary move, stressing the vote had reaffirmed the party’s majority position that there would be no change to abortion legislation.
Crisafulli was pressed by the Labor opposition in parliament on Thursday about the government’s position, where the premier again deflected questions on the issue as a scare campaign.
“I said there’d be no change, there is no change,” he told parliament.
“Scare campaigns don’t work when a government is doing the things it said it was going to do.”
Dalton’s defiance provided ammunition for Labor to reignite its campaign.
It also fuelled overt lobbying efforts from pro-life activists to pressure LNP figures who have previously spoken in protest against access to abortion.
In a video posted to social media filmed on parliament grounds this week, Cherish Life chief executive Matthew Cliff called out government MPs Amanda Stoker, Kerry-Anne Dooley and Donna Kirkland.
“Very disappointed, to say the least, with those other Christian politicians who’ve made professions to us, who admitted that they were disappointed in the decision they’d made [to vote for the gag motion in 2024],” he said.
“They’ve just sat there again and watched their colleague cross the floor and done nothing.”
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James Hall is the News Director at the Brisbane Times. He is the former Queensland correspondent at The Australian Financial Review and has reported for a range of mastheads across the country, specialising on political and finance reporting.Connect via X or email.
