“I’m sorry, I will have to ask you to leave. It will be a distraction to the jury, at the very least.”
Karl is not the only one outraged over the judge’s comments.
Queensland Senator Larissa Waters took to Twitter and wrote, “If I can breastfeed in Parliament, mums should be able to breastfeed anywhere. We definitely need more women judges - even breastfeeding ones!”
And Edwina Sharrock, founder and CEO of Birth Beat, said of the incident during an appearance on Today:
WATCH: Larissa Waters breastfeeding in Parliament
“I actually can’t fathom this either but it is so important that we do address this and call this behaviour out.”
“And in a public courtroom of all places. So we actually know the Anti-Discrimination Act says what happened there is illegal, so I think it is important that we just address this and say can we believe this is happening? What would be more distracting is probably a crying child who’s hungry,” Edwina continued.
Despite all the backlash, Judge Gamble has stood by his decision. Today in court he told jury members, “It should all be self-explanatory, members of the jury.”
“What I said was this, and I am reading from the transcripts: ‘Madam, you will not be permitted to breastfeed a baby in court. I’m sorry. I will have to ask you to leave. It will be a distraction for the jury at the very least. Thank you.’”
“I’m telling you this because it is something that has attracted some media publicity, and I think you need to know exactly what it was that I said and why I said it.”
“As I said a moment ago, I think that it is self-explanatory,” Gamble said before telling jury members that the whole incident is irrelevant to the case they are in court for.
“This is not something you will need to consider going forward,” Gamble concluded.