It ain't over 'till it's over

Once again, with an intrepid band of friends, I sat through the Parliamentary debate on euthanasia on Wednesday Night. Once again, what we witnessed was high drama.

We were all bracing ourselves for Greens MLC, Mark Parnell's bill to pass with the support of the Independent MLC, Ann Bressington.

As the third in her set of amendments was defeated - by a significant margin, Bressington withdrew her remaining raft of changes. Most, I think expected her to change her position and vote against the bill. But as the debate drew to a close, she was nowhere to be seen and it suddenly dawned on me that she intended to abstain from voting. This would have left the house deadlocked at 10 votes to ten which would have left the President to decide using his casting vote (which, as he expressed, would have caused the bill to pass.

However, at the eleventh hour Liberal MLC, (and previous supporter of the bill) David Ridgway rose to his feet and told of the recent death of his mother and how the circumstances had caused him to reconsider. Moments later the bill was 'passed in the negative' (or lost).

How close can you get!

As a number of friends who witnessed this later commented to me, we should have all been elated at this outcome, but most of us felt something decidedly different.

We know too well that this bill will be back in the new parliament after March 2010 and we also know that there's a risk that it will pass at that time if the wrong people are elected. In otherwords: It ain't over yet.

The DLP are committed to making a difference in the Legislative Council for all South Australians. Blocking euthanasia is just one important step.

Interested in helping? Contact State Secretary, David McCabe at dlpforsa@esc.net.au