We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

A look at votes in NSW on secular issues, and the influence of the religious lobby, and a gesture ...

We have had recent votes on two secular issues, which I thought I'd review for my web page. These were the vote on the 11th May 2017 on the "Abortion Law Reform (Miscellaneous Acts Amendment) Bill 2016" and on the 16th November 2017 on the "Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017".

The were both lost - the abortion bill by 14 to 25 votes, and the assisted dying by 19 to 20 votes, a much narrower margin. Now, in the minds of some they are separate issues, but being informed by both my secular background in the NSW Humanists and also the Pirate Party of Australia, I prefer to see them as facets of the same issue - the influence of religion on Australian law. While advocates against abortion and voluntary assisted dying couch their arguments in non-religious terms, the fact remains that the vast majority of such partisan advocates do have a religious agenda. There are some pro- Voluntary Assisted Dying groups with a Christian basis, but they are not involved with organised religious groups having political influence.

For me as a humanist, I see such anti positions as representing an ill informed view of human life and thinking that we can intervene in people's lives because of our religious doctrine, ignoring personal wishes. While the Pirate Party of Australia is strongly informed by secular notions - it also champions the autonomy of the individual to make his or her own decisions.

In spite of the fact that these votes are - for the Liberal Party - claimed to be conscience votes, in fact there is the threat that party resources and even the expectation of pre-selection will be withdrawn if the representative does not follow the "unofficial party line", even though there's no written-down policy. When you have the ability, you can flex your muscles without worrying about what is in fact written down. It's actually one of the best ways of controlling things - erase your tracks.

Still, sometimes people can misunderstand ... The "Iron Fist Velvet Glove" podcasts notes in episode 177 - see here :

At a meeting of state council in Bundaberg, Liberal National Party president Gary Spence lambasted three of its MPs " Tim Nicholls, Jann Stuckey and Steve Minnikin " for voting with Labor for abortion to be legalised in Queensland, even though they had been allowed a "conscience vote" on the issue by their own party room.
In effect, it was a "Clayton's" conscience vote, designed to give the appearance the party was keeping to the convention of allowing MPs to exercise a vote independent of party direction but with the underlying threat to pre-selections by the organisational wing due in 2020.

So, the votes are in the following table :

Party	Pro Abortion Vote	Anti Abortion Vote	Not Voted	Pro VAD Vote	Anti VAD Vote	Not Voted
Greens	Buckingham			Buckingham
	Faruqi			Faruqi
	Field			Field
	Shoebridge			Shoebridge
	Walker			Walker
Labor	Graham	Donnelly		Graham	Donnelly
	Mookhey	Moselmane	Houssos	Primrose	Houssos
	Primrose	Wong		Searle	Mookhey
	Searle			Sharpe	Moselmane
	Secord			Veitch	Secord
	Sharpe			Voltz	Wong
	Veitch
	Voltz
Liberal		Amato	Ajaka	Mallard	Amato	Ajaka
		Clarke	Mason-Cox	Phelps	Clarke
		Cusack			Cusack	Ward
		Farlow			Farlow
		Harwin			Harwin
		MacDonald			MacDonald
		Maclaren-Jones			Maclaren-Jones
		Mallard			Martin
		Martin			Mason-Cox
		Pearce
		Phelps
National		Blair		Blair	Colless
		Colless		Fang		Mitchell
		Franklin		Franklin
		Gay		Khan
		Khan		Taylor
		Mitchell
		Taylor
Animal Justice	Pearson			Pearson
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers		Borsak			Borsak
		Brown			Brown
Christian Democrats		Green			Green
		Nile			Nile

This table is based on the results in : Hansard-Abortion and Hansard-VAD . I was somewhat inspired by reviews of the voting in Mama Mia, the NSW Dying with Dignity Website, and The New Liberator, newsletter of the NSW Rationalists.

Note that The Hon John Ajaka is President of the Legislative Council, and so I would expect does not vote. There are a total of 42 seats in the Legislative Council, and so there were 2 members that did not participate in the two votes. Also, note that Jeremy Buckingham was a Green at the time of the two votes.

We can generally observe that there is much more support for Voluntary Assisted Dying than Abortion, with many National members voting in support. Equally, more Labor candidates were willing to vote against Voluntary Assisted Dying than against Abortion.

Clearly, the Greens, along with the Animal Justice Party are quite progressive in their voting, and Dying with Dignity NSW will turn off their brains and just tell you to vote for the Voluntary Euthanasia Party(VEP). Now, I have nothing against the VEP, and if they want to advocate on their own behalf, good luck to them. I actually hope they do well. But I am however disappointed that DWD NSW are not broader in their outlook. They are not a political party.

Unfortunately, no Liberal or National members voted in favour of Abortion. However, a few Labor members did. To me, that suggests a way of making a statement. However else you order your preferences, when it comes to choosing between Labor and Liberal/Nats, vote first for the Labor candidates that voted in favour of both ( essentially the "Pro VAD Vote" column), then the Liberals and Nats who voted in favour of VAD, and put the other Labor and Liberal candidates well down amongst the riff-raff in your preferences.

I don't know how strong a statement it will be, but at least it is something you can do if you are a below-the-line voter.

As a separate issue, I have given a nod to my local State member, Victor Dominello, on his support for Voluntary Assisted Dying. I don't have much more advice to give on local members, as I do not have the resources. But, needless to say, numerous smaller parties pursue this issue, including the Pirate Party of Australia ( though not at state level). I've also written on broader around development and the NSW State Liberal's record on other issues, as you can see here.

See ya! Enjoy the democracy sausage!