Former prime minister Tony Abbott has told a right-wing conference a push to decriminalise abortion in NSW and Victoria's assisted dying laws are "fundamentally inhuman positions".
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Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Sydney, the former Liberal leader said the current debate about "death on demand" was "morally shocking".
NSW's lower house on Thursday night passed a bill which would remove abortion from the state's Crimes Act. It's expected to pass the upper house later in August.
"The biggest single problem with what's happening in the NSW parliament at the moment is that it has been sprung on people," Mr Abbott said on Friday.
"If they really want to allow abortion right up to the time of birth, surely there should be a proper public debate about this, it shouldn't have been something that was just ushered in ... and then attempted to be rushed through the parliament."
The bill allows terminations up to 22 weeks, as well as later abortions if two doctors considering all the circumstances agree the termination should occur.
Australia's "moral anchor points" have shifted and the country's Christian faith and knowledge have been lost, Mr Abbott told the conference.
"This is why it is so easy for people to put forward what I think are fundamentally inhuman positions and have them taken much more seriously than they should."
Victoria's voluntary assisted dying scheme came into effect in mid-June.
It allows terminally-ill adults in intolerable pain and with less than six months to live - or 12 months for neurodegenerative diseases - to request their doctor's help in dying.
Mr Abbott on Friday also revealed one of his daughters was "soon to take up a position in the Australian embassy in Beijing".
He revealed he'd told his daughter the challenge in China would to be not just an analyst but also "a judge".
The ex-politician recommended she read Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples as well as the Bible. He told the audience the New Testament was by far the "greatest" of the great books.
Mr Abbott has three daughters - Louise, Frances and Bridget.
Louise has worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for a number of years and previously been posted overseas.
Mr Abbott earlier this year came under fire for attending a 2018 fundraiser at a NSW golf club controlled by Chinese businessmen who reportedly have close links with the country's ruling Communist Party.
Australian Associated Press
