End of life choice advances

David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill passed its second reading in Parliament last night, 70 - 50. Which means now the real struggle for consensus over amendments begins. Pretty much everyone who voted for it agrees it needs changes (in part becuse the select committee refused to do its fucking job), and the bill's majority isn't huge. If just five MP's change their minds, it will fail. So those amendments are going to matter, and David Seymour is going to have serious work to do to build and hold a consensus behind a specific package, and prevent the bigots from wrecking it.

Stuff has a list of how MPs voted. The Greens, NZFirst and ACT all voted for the bill in a block. Labour was 70% in favour, National two-thirds against. The big parties have that sort of ratio on every bill of this type, and it really highlights the cultural difference between them: one modern and secular, the other backwards and bigoted. And it really makes me wonder how long National's position can be sustained, given the increasing secularisation of New Zealand.

The bill should face its next reading on the 31st of July.