The Australian Prime Minister told a group of Christian leaders that the Government had no intention of pursuing the decriminalisation of abortion. However when asked about data collection in relation to abortion, as carried out by the News South Wales Government, she was less committal.

Kristina Keneally told delegates to the Christian Forum: “Not here and not tonight…I do have some concerns about privacy issues, about how the data is collected and how it is interpreted.”

She added: ”We do collect some of that data, we don’t make it public and we don’t collect all of the data that South Australia does.

“But do I think as a nation we need better information to inform this debate? Yes, I do.”

The abortion debate while a hot topic in Australia does not seem to be either as aggressive as in the USA or as liberal as in Britain. Nevertheless, the Federal opposition leader in Australia when asked by reporters about his view did say that MPs would vote according to conscience and not party line.

When asked what his view was, David Hutt who is the New South Wales director of the Australian Christian Lobby said: “The Christian constituency is concerned about a range of issues from homelessness and alcohol abuse to the introduction of secular ethics classes in schools as well as important protections for religious freedom.”