The " Decision " Process !

Sadly, a very important fact of life has become glaringly apparent  recently.   The will of the people is not the factor that gets legislation to become law in Australia.  It first has to get the nod from the grandees of the various political parties and then survive the religious leanings of the individual politicians we voted into office.   This same sex marriage issue was a typical example.

Country after country granted the right to marry to same sex couples and yet it failed to even get to a vote here in Australia.   Constant opinion polls showing it had public acceptance were studiously ignored until we finally got a non binding postal survey to shame the politicians into action.  Even now, we await the actual legislation to see what provisions get tacked on as it becomes law.

Now legislation to help those dyeing from a painful terminal disease has crashed and burned - by just one vote.  Once again, opinion polls have clearly indicated that the public favour this form of relief, and yet the bill that got voted down did contain some strange anomalies.

Those seeking such relief would need to have achieved their twenty-fifth birthday.  Why would we condemn a twenty year old to an agonising death if they had the misfortune to contract a disease that delivered such a fate ?   And even a distant relative would have the right to intervene and withhold the application of such pain relief.

This proposed law would almost totally ignore the wishes of the terminally ill lying in a hospital bed in terrible pain and asking his or her doctor to end it.  Legal arrangements would need to have been entered into long in advance, with prior consultation with several doctors, one of whom would be a psychiatrist.  It seems that most aspects of sponaeity have been discarded.

What we lack is the ability to have important issues that gain public support decided in the parliaments - both state and Federal.   Politicians and their party masters are disinclined to deal with any issue that has public support but a substantial degree of opposition.  They are most interested in their prospects of re-election and ignoring such matters is the safer option.

This euthanasia issue is being decided on a state by state basis.   There is the expectation of a decision in the Victorian parliament pending and we could end up having such relief become law in some states and remain illegal in others.   Like those same sex marriage laws, they were deemed of national importance and decided in the Federal arena and a common euthanasia law across Australia would be preferable to individual state decisions.  On important laws, uniformity grants the same benefits to all Australians.

Perhaps we need to take those decisions out of the hands of politicians and their political parties and return them to the people of Australia.   Surely the right to die with dignity is a matter that would be best decided by referendum - and that decision would need to be binding on all states and territories.

Of course, we would not want minor issues decided in that way and the obvious decider of what should go to a referendum decision by the Australian people would be the High Court of Australia.  The men and women elevated to that bench have the maturity to select those few major issues that fail to achieve due process but can not be left in limbo indefinitely.

Ultimately, that final decision is the right of the people of Australia.