The Case for Voluntary Assisted Dying: Progress 2017 panel discussion

Andrew Denton from Go Gentle Australia  and voluntary euthanasia law reform advocate Jenny Barnes discuss the case for proposed assisted dying legislation in Australia with journalist Tracey Spicer.

Jenny Barnes is a nurse with many years experience in aged care and related areas. She has been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour.

Andrew Denton is a well known television producer and presenter.

Go Gentle's campaign can be viewed at Stop Victorians Suffering. The victorian parliament is set to debate a bill in August 2017. Parliamentarians will have a conscience vote.

The scope of the proposed laws is still changing. According to a recent Age report:

Victorians who suffer from motor neurone disease will have access to physician-assisted death under wider-than-expected new laws to be introduced within months.

And those who are physically unable to take a lethal pill will get alternative options – such as help to inject the drug or use of a feeding tube – in a bid ensure they are not discriminated against under the legislation.

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Video: ALP Celebrates in Mentone

On the night of the Victorian State election 2014 local campaigners from the seats of Mordialloc and Sandringham gather in Mentone to celebrate Labor's victory. Candidates Tim Richardson and Christina Zigouras thank their supporters.

Tim Richardson won back the seat for Labor with a two-party-preferred swing of 3.5%.

Christina Zigouras gained the second largest 2PP swing to Labor in the State of 8.2%.

The electorates are next to each other and worked closely during the campaign. An historic night all round!

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What's the bottom line we should demand of our State Parliamentarians?

A couple of Letters to the Editor in Melbourne's Bayside Leader local 'free' weekly newspaper. It's part of Rupert Murdoch's Herald Sun chain.

A case of old media meets new media, perhaps.

'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' or perhaps just a little bit disgusted with how low the bar is set in Sandy. A pity that politics drives us to clichés.

Don't miss the rest of my coverage of the Sandringham Campaign for the 2014 Victorian State election.

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Victorian Election: Sandringham Sandbelt Seat Not So Safe Anymore

The people of Sandringham have been enjoying an unusual election season with a highly visible and focused Labor campaign and a strong independent candidate. ALP candidate Christina Zigouras’ energetic and responsive approach has been in stark contrast to Murray Thompson. After 22 years, our Liberal member did not even turn up to local candidate forums. Locals who looked forward to vigorous debate found that he has added no-show to his customary go-slow.

Independent Clarke Martin has been a tireless advocate for a return to a standalone 7-12 high school in Beaumaris, a passion shared by former student Christina.

No doubt Murray Thompson "is a nice bloke" who does a creditable job helping constituents with their problems. However, the role of a State parliamentarian must be much broader. Our member should articulate a strong vision and concrete policies for the electorate and the State and show leadership on both local and statewide issues. He/she should be actively engaged with the community not just a pipeline to the bureaucracy.

Our issues have much in common with other sand-belt electorates: public transport and traffic congestion; funding of education and training; lack of consultation and inequitable outcomes of residential rezoning processes; protection of bayside coastal areas. There has been lots of media analysis of the Frankston train line. However, few journalists have even noticed that two of the worst level crossings earmarked for removal by Labor are in our electorate, namely Cheltenham and Mentone.

We should not be taken for granted just because we live in a so-called safe blue ribbon seat. Our democracy deserves much better. We need a vigorous voice in Sandringham!

Click for more on the 2014 Victorian State election

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Governing by Stealth: Low Flying Pollie in Sandringham

It's always good to be published in a Murdoch paper, especially during a State election. So here's my letter to the Bayside Leader published 18 Nov 2014:

Here's the digital version:

Sandringham is not a marginal seat now but after the election it will be ("Frankston train line voters could sway result", November 11). Christina Zigouras will make it a marginal Labor seat. Two Frankston line level crossings with the worst congestion are in our electorate at Mentone and Cheltenham. Daniel Andrews has committed to their removal.

There has been the usual deafening silence form the local Liberal member. As it gets more desperate, we can expect the Napthine government to copy Labor's program of removing 50 level crossings, just as it is playing catchup on schools.

Incidentally, has anyone seen Murray Thompson lately? He was a no-show at the Bayside candidates forum last Friday and the Bayside education forum on Monday. Our democracy deserves better than a sit-down sitting parliamentarian. It's time for 22 years of inaction to come to a close.

As I emailed Christina Zigouras: Love a cliché - “deafening silence”. Squibbed “under the radar” and “low flying”. We should call him Stealth - low flying, off-the-radar that no one sees coming. But he hardly breaks the sound barrier.

This is not meant to be personal. Murray's a nice bloke. It's about performance or lack of it as a parliamentary representative.

I might be biased but I'm also peeved about living in a so-called safe Liberal seat where the bar is set so low. {Cliché alert!] Campaigning in Sandringham is like sparring with the invisible man.

Ad for @Christina4Sandy:

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Let's Marginalise Our Missing Liberal Member for Sandringham

According to the Herald Sun yesterday:

Four marginal seats on the Frankston railway line that changed hands at the last election will play a crucial role in deciding who will govern Victoria for the next four years.

Well it's time the media take more notice of voters in so-called safe seats. In the seat of Sandringham, an invigorated and resurgent ALP is putting on one of its strongest campaigns.

My online response to the Herald Sun spells out just one of the issues that we are taking up to the Napthine government:

Sandringham is not classified as a marginal seat now but after the election it will be. Christina Zigouras will make it a marginal Labor seat. Two Frankston line level crossings with the worst congestion are in our electorate at Mentone and Cheltenham. Daniel Andrews has committed to their removal.

There has been the usual deafening silence form the local Liberal member. As it gets more desperate, we can expect the Napthine government to copy Labor's program of removing 50 level crossings, just as it is playing catchup on schools.

Incidentally, has anyone seen Murray Thompson lately? He was a no-show at the Bayside candidates forum last Friday and the Bayside education forum on Monday. Our democracy deserves better than a sit-down sitting parliamentarian. It's time for 22 years of inaction to come to a close.

Christina Zigouras with Daniel Andrews at Mentone station

If you're in the electorate and haven't received our pamphlet yet, please contact us:

christina.zigouras@vic.alp.org.au

P O Box 267 Black Rock VIC. 3198

ph: 0408 067 006

Every polling booth, including the pre-polling at Shop 3, 116 Balcombe Road Mentone, will have Labor people with How-to-Vote cards. Please ring us if there are any glitches.

Public transport is only one of many issues that have been ignored by the local Libs. Labor is committed to making Beaumaris a stand-alone 7-12 secondary college. Now that there's the sniff of defeat, the government has discovered areas such school funding and residential rezoning. I can just say to Murray - too late mate!

Christina is online at Facebook, Twitter and her website.

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Victorian Hoon Bidding Spree

It was bound to become a bidding war. Following the Victorian State Opposition's holidays offensive , there is a law and order bidding spree:

The State Government has announced plans to strengthen Victoria's dangerous driving laws, hours after the Opposition released its own hoon driving policy.

Mr Holding says the money raised from selling cars will be donated to victims of crime and road tragedies.

The plans come after the Opposition released its anti-hoon policy earlier today.

The Opposition's policy is a three-step process that includes impounding the driver's car and eventually crushing it should they re-offend.
Government and Opposition talk tough on hoon drivers

Wouldn't have anything to do with the Altona by-election in 3 weeks time or the State election in November. Better start building more prisons ASAP.

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Vic Opposition Take a Summer Break from Their Lethargy

We've been back in Victoria for 18 months or so after 10 years up North. Until recently it seemed that it had become a one party State. The Liberal Opposition leader and his team were mostly absent or absent-minded. Our local Liberal member, and failed shadow minister, Murray Thompson typified their lethargy and incompetence.

They couldn't lay a glove on a government with an unelected leader and more than a decade in office. Well the summer has seen a wee change. Ted Baillieu's public relations managers have filled the January political vacuum with a series of populist policies and pronouncements.

The latest is the abolition of suspended gaol sentences:

Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu – frequently derided for his genteel and small ‘l’ liberal approach to politics – has boldly started a law and order auction that could see him elected Premier come November 26th.
TED GETS TOUGH: Vic Libs show true grit pledging to scrap suspended sentences

It's a wimpy version of the kind of mandatory sentencing proposals that pollies find irresistible around election time.

An Onymous Lefty is less kind:

Sending more people to prison for less serious crimes makes me a big tough leader. Please take me seriously? Please?

Law and Order is the old standby for conservatives bereft of original ideas. The latest dabble in populism followed close on the heels of Baillieu's plans to relocate the Victoria Police force to the train stations at night.

The Opposition would love to emulate the Brumby/Bracks courting of disaffected voters in the regions. It certainly helped in the 1999 victory against Jeff Kennett. It was also a major factor in the 2008 defeat of the Carpenter government in Western Australia. The only noise on that front concerns the North-South pipeline:

Opposition leader Ted Baillieu said the pipeline should not have been built and was a "white elephant".
North-south pipeline a reality

He has other problems as he cannot afford to alienate the thirsty Melbourne suburbs:

THE Coalition appears to be walking away from its election promise of a new dam to boost Melbourne's water supply.

...With the election just 11 months away, pressure is mounting for Mr Baillieu to clarify his policy for resolving what will be one of the most pressing issues of the campaign.
Baillieu backpedals on the Coalition's dam commitment

At the beginning of an election year, you'd think the the National Party would be trying their hardest to copy their WA cousins. I'd be hard pressed to remember the name of their State leader.

Talking of names, a million dollars couldn't squeeze the names of the Opposition Shadow Attorney General or their frontbench spokespeople on water or transport. Ted Baillieu has done all the running lately. Perhaps the earlier reference to his team should be deleted.

Anyway it has stirred the government from its complacency. Just back from vacation, Brumby hopped into his opposite number:

VICTORIA would need a new jail if suspended sentences and home detention were scrapped, experts say.

And the cost of implementing the changes would be several hundred million dollars, because each new prison bed would effectively cost $600,000 to create.

The Herald Sun revealed yesterday that the Coalition would dump suspended sentences and home detention if it got into power - a plan condemned by the Government.

Premier John Brumby and acting Attorney-General Bob Cameron attacked the Opposition's plan by saying "mums and dads" convicted of more than two driving-while-disqualified offences would go straight to jail.
Premier John Brumby says Opposition plan to scrap suspended sentences has fallen apart

The complacency was not about Brumby's attitude to government where the polls indicate he is viewed as both active and effective. The cracks in that picture are public transport, traffic congestion and nighttime violence. Plus fire and water, of course.

Conventional wisdom has an easy victory for Labor at the upcoming November election. Despite the Opposition's inability to get much political mileage from the bushfires tragedy, another Black Saturday could change all that. As the WA and Northern Territory elections showed, Brumby cannot afford to take either his opponents or the voters for granted.

Baillieu gave an exclusive to the Herald Sun. That's only fitting as the editors of that paper have filled the role of Opposition leader for many years. Though it would be impossible to exceed the anti-government campaign by the West Australian newspaper in 2008, I'm sure the Hun will have a real go. Nevertheless, they may be a bit ambivalent about the other issue that have gained some traction:

A NEW independent watchdog will crack down on politically motivated, taxpayer-funded government advertisements if the Coalition wins next year's state election.
Baillieu pledge to end political ads

The mass media are the beneficiaries of this kind of government spending. Hackneyed as it is, the Opposition took a long time to catch on and hatch this one. The Working Victoria ads have been running since August.

Update: Thanks to Terry Wright for his comment alerting us to the ban the bong policy that heralded Ted's New Year offensive.

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