The End of Life Choice Bill passed its third reading last night, 69 - 51. Thanks to a compromise with NZ First - which looks to have been necessary on the final numbers - the commencement of the bill will be subject to a referendum.
Given the ugliness of the "debate" over the bill, which saw bigots equating the terminally ill being able to choose to die on their own terms when they are ready for it - something they already do illegally - with the mass murder of the old and disabled, it is likely to be a very ugly campaign. The same tiny clique of well-funded fundamentalist nutjobs who have opposed gay rights, women's rights, equal marriage, and pretty much any progress in this country forever are going to spew hate into our political system for months, because that is all they know how to do. And the biggest effect of it is likely to be to make people turn off, walk away and not vote.
I urge people not to do that. We simply can not let the bigots win, on this, or on anything. Instead, we have to crush them at the ballot box. This won't change their minds - bigots are incapable of learning - but it should teach them not to inflict themselves on us in this way, and go back to just bothering MPs instead.