Well what about the power of polling for the vote to guide the members of parliament?
Minor and independents maybe putting just as much pressure here that they are not going let slip with perhaps what the public wants ?
The Voluntary Euthanasia Party and the Australian Sex Party will come together tomorrow morning, at 11am, on the steps of Parliament House for a media conference.
Dr Phillip Nitschke and Fiona Patten will announce their formal preference swap arrangement for the Upper House, with both parties going straight to each other in Southern and Northern Metro.
Voluntary euthanasia is demonstrably the biggest single issue where both major parties are out of step with community opinion and the opinions of their own party members. The ABC’s Vote Compass poll showed that 71% of Coalition voters want voluntary euthanasia legalised while 79% of Labor voters do. However both parliamentary parties remain implacably opposed to initiating new laws.
Ms Patten said that this clearly indicated that the issue was in the hands of moral extremists in both major parties. ‘The moderates in both parties have to put their hands up for the rights of terminally ill and suffering people all over Victoria”, she said. “Successful legislative models are available in other countries including the US that can be used to base Victorian laws on. Unlike the NT approach, Tony Abbott would find it hard to strike down a Victorian initiative”.
Ms Patten has pledged to refer the matter to the Victorian Law Reform Commission within the first 100 days of being elected to the Upper House.
The media conference will be attended by a swag of advertising scooters and will be launched with a major letter box drop of houses and businesses in the Northern and Southern Metro regions.
