Well its done & dusted. There's no more tear filled comments, no more crackly voices heaping accolades on one another. No more applause & emotional groans, now its time for a more practical look at what was. Glory basking time is over.
So its passed as I think everyone thought it would, given not only the Government numbers but the general feel of many of those in both Chambers of WA Parliament. It didn't have unanimous support but I think every knew it would eventually pass regardless. It was obvious, it was expected & I don't think anyone, even its biggest critics thought otherwise.
That's why I think...
1) There was no filibustering at all. It was a surprise to me it got passed before Christmas, I always expected it would be on the table until next February. Not the case. Both sides of both chambers did extra hours to get over the ground. But it was not anything other than the Upper House doing its job & doing it properly.
IT IS THE HOUSE OF REVIEW.
Remember for a moment, the Government declared it was a good bill when it passed the Legislative Assembly and that it needed no amendment. Well no & had that happened an awful lot of the legal detail would have been decided in the implementation phase. That is behind a busy shroud away from the Parliament by bureaucrats in departments headed up by WALabor Ministers. Too much would have been jerked away from full scrutiny and any issues that arose would have to be raised by members in the Parliament...where the Government under scrutiny had the numbers. Say whatever you like about VAD, say what ever you like about Nick Goiran but fact is, we need full scrutiny at a forensic level to allow Democracy to shine. Did it work 100%? No...rarely does. But it wasn't the Premier's quick rubber stamp.
Worse still the Upper House passed 55 amendments, 23 from Labor, which really flies as a great egg into the Lower House Labor MP's faces and the Preimers that showed how badly wrong they were either by fault or decision. I think decision, because I think Labor is very much of the mind that more that done at the departmental level & less via the Parliament the better...for Labor
2) Then there's Alyssa Hayden MLA (Liberal) who tried valiantly in the Lower House to exercise the arm of democracy in the Lower House. She even commented on how she was sledged that her comments were stupid & silly. Some of those trains of thought were not ignored by the Upper House, not thought as silly & stupid and were woven into the amendments. I've said before its no coincidence that whilst the National Party doesn't interfere in factions, groups or any other part of other parties they did in great numbers man the booths during the by-election for Alyssa's seat supporting her & handing out How-To-Vote cards. Nationals ran no candidate but saw her election was vital for a fairer democratic outcome for the wider state. Still stands tall as a sensible move on the Nationals part.
3) There there's Adele Farina MLA (Labor) who is pro VAD but voted against the bill because she wasn't fully convinced it had full harm reduction woven in...worse still for so called "fans of democracy on the left", she was pressured to vote with the government even though it was a conscience vote & to her credit whether we agree with her vote or not, she used her conscience vote as its designed, not how her party's over reaching crowd decided. Not overly surprised, the left has "over reach" deeply sewn into its DNA.
4) As mentioned before the twitter exchange between Labor MPs Sue Ellery MLC & Jessica Stojkowski MPs where Jessica describe the slow pace as "truly an affront to democracy" - In short "NO". In fact it was voted down early to refer the bill to a legislative committee where far deeper scrutiny & legal advise could be used to get a more water tight & safe Bill sorted and THEN present it to the Upper House, freeing up the Upper House to go on with other business that's been waiting in line for sometime. So there really was no choice, Nick Goiran and others either rolled over and permitted a shrouded ministerial mess or he (and others) stood up and locked in as many improvements and safeguards against loop hole abuse as possible.
Jessica probably need to brush up on the many facets of Democracy and also the rights & responsibilities of being a MP. Failing to exercise those rights IS a failure of responsibility and I applaud the Upper House for serving Democracy and applaud some of those without the numbers in the Lower House for trying.
5) Sad fact is in this whinge fest grotesquely using the word democracy in a hideously twisted form is we still don't see any apology for the bullying of members by other MPs, we don't see the Premier and others concede they should never have pushed for a rubber stamp, no amendment bill nor anyone say actually democracy won out. It may not be the result everyone wanted, but democracy won out. Democracy would have suffered a severe disservice had the Premier & the Labor Government got its preferred pathway and now he's crowing like a braggart that "We did it".
No democracy did it & had the Labor Government done it would have been passed after a few hours sitting and would be put together behind a minister's door. This is one of his stranger back flips and he's had a lot.
6) Other odious part is one of the Labor critics who sledged the Upper House doing its job properly sat in the Lower House and although there was in excess of 150 hours of debate on the Bill, she offered less than 12 minutes on the floor & on the final day, she barely entered the Lower House at all. In fact most of the people who filed in & helped nearly fill the chamber all came in during the last 5 Amendments...and sat silent. They were not there to comment or amend, they were there because Peter Watson MLA, the Speaker of the House had allowed the Media to attend the House to record the significant passing of a landmark bill. I have no problem with the press being there, it seems reasonable & correct. Just a pity that some people only showed up on the last day to catch the camera action. I am surprised they didn't call for a division to get their name recorded.
The Premier gave his speech, no one apologised to Alyssa Hayden, to Adele Farina, to Nick Goiran and to everyone else who exercised their duties to democracy.
Also is the poor explanation to the public. There are not 100s of safeguards. There are eligibility criteria and THEN there's safeguard. Most are eligibility criteria. Most people who have had elderly friends or family in distress in their final days won't be comforted when they learn that many of their dying loved ones wouldn't have been eligible under this legislation.
Most of the public eager for this are operating under the misunderstanding that it's now law & will be up & running soon. No.
The implementation phase is expected to take 18 months but the length of time that takes is very much up to the minister, the Premier & cabinet.
It will be operational most like just prior to the next State election. (Just let that sink in)
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