Stacey Kirk: Euthanasia threatens to shift election battleground – Stuff.co.nz

STACEY KIRK

Last updated05:00, June 11 2017

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Parliament to debate a bill that would allow voluntary euthanasia.

OPINION: In politics, timing is everything.

And the clock has begun ticking on a time-bomb that has lain dormant in Parliament's infamous biscuit tin for more than a year.

ACT leader David Seymour's bill to legalise euthanasia waspulled from the members' bill ballot on Thursday. The extent to which itdetonates in the coming monthswill depend purely on old-fashioned politicking.

Euthanasia is a debate this country has had before. It's divisive, emotive and a hugely important debate to be had over personal rightsthat should not be shiedaway from.

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It's also an issue that polls have shown considerable public support for, particularly among New Zealand's older population - an important voting bloc for National.

MARION VAN DIJK/FAIRFAX NZ

ACT leader David Seymour's euthanasia bill has been pulled from the ballot. He'll put up a hard fight to get it through each hurdle, even if it creates a headache for the party he's dependent on to remain in Parliament.

A select committee inquiry into the matter has already garnered the most amount of public submissions in history - 20,000 - and the findings of that won't have any affect on whether the law changes.

But this time it's real, and four months out from an election - which National makes no bones about seeing as a race to hold the middle ground - is not the time it would have chosen to have Prime Minister Bill English's staunch social conservatismon display.

Seymour is already manoeuvring to box National into a corner, away from filibustering his bill into oblivionahead of the September Election.

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Matt Vickers says, "When Lecretia took her case in 2015 she was hoping to galvanise political action".

Between now and when the house rises on August 17there's three Members Days left - days set aside to debate members billsnot on the Government's agenda.

There might be a temptation to make it the problem of the next Government.

National could do that by developing a sudden interest in bills it had previously deemedtoo insignificant to adopt itself.

It would call on its MPs to fill every second of their allocated speaking time;drawing out debate to push euthanasia's first reading into the nextparliamentary term.

It would be a cynical attempt to inoculateEnglish and other senior ministers from a divisive issue that could affect vote share in their own electorates.

Seymour and campaigners would rightly pounce, using every opportunity to highlight that cynicism and leverage it into an election issue.

For that reason,it may not be a wise move.

Seymour needs to get it past three readings, one at a time. National could well decide to wave it through the first before term ends, and park it in select committee.

The campaign line being thereafter: "We're happy to have a debate about this, that's why we've voted it through to committee. The public will get their say, we'll hear all the evidence, and can make an informed decision once that's happened." (Whispers:"next parliamentary term".)

From then, it's aconscience vote and all bets are off. Rough straw polls put the split in the House at 33 MPs who currentlysupport the bill, 27 who do not and 37 who were either undecided, or not publicly disclosing their position.

And it pays not to make the mistake of simply thinking it comes down to a liberal vs conservative divide.

The Greens and Labour certainly see an opportunity to detract from the economic story English and Finance Minister Steven Joyce would like to fight the campaign on.

But where many might assume they represent the more socially progressive parties, there is concern among their MPs that the euthanasia bill must afford adequate protection for the mentally ill and vulnerable.

It's the rule of politics: the advantage lies with who gets to draw the battle lines.

Then comes the grenade.

-Sunday Star Times

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Stacey Kirk: Euthanasia threatens to shift election battleground - Stuff.co.nz