Coalition the 'unrepresentative swill' on VAD

How ironic it was that the very day after I quoted Keating’s slight against his then-hostile Senate, Keating himself, a conservative Catholic, would come out against voluntary assisted dying (VAD) reform.

Hansard record makes compelling reading

But, more importantly, the Hansard record of votes on the Victorian Bill in the lower house make for compelling reading.

Figure 1 shows Victorian voter support for VAD (from ANU Australian Election Study 2016 data) by political preference, and MP votes in support of the Victorian Bill (lower house, 2017).

Figure 1: Victorian electorate support and MP vote support for VAD (lower house, 2017)
Sources: AES 2016; Hansard

It’s quite obvious that Greens MPs (100% v 91%) , Labor MPs (86% v 84%) and minor/independent MPs (67% v 76%) approximately represented the proportion of voter support. (It’s unsurprising that all Greens MPs vote in favour of VAD Bills: it’s Greens policy; while it’s a ‘conscience’ matter for other parties.)

The yawning Coalition chasm

But the yawning chasm of Coalition MPs not representing their own voters (14% v 73%) is even more stark. That’s a gap of nearly sixty percentage points. Surely that would be enough to raise the eyebrow of any conservative voter?

Aside from a handful of Coalition MPs who voted in support of the VAD Bill, it’s clear that there’s generally no real ‘conscience’ vote across the Coalition benches.

The corridors have been buzzing with stories of threats to Coalition promotions and preselections, and threats to preference deals for the state election next year, though of course there’s nothing public and on the record. Just the serene statement that “our members have a conscience vote.” The discrepancy amongst Australian Coalition ranks has been formally uncovered before in university research.

It’s a national story

However, it’s not like this is confined to Victoria. Here’s the same chart (Figure 2) for all state VAD bills across Australia since 2000 which have had a division on the vote — so we know who voted which way.

Figure 2: Australian electorate support and state MP vote support for VAD (all state Bills since 2000)
Sources: AES 2106; Hansards

Again, the largest and most striking gap between voter desire for reform and MPs opposing their voters’ wishes is amongst the Coalition ranks, at a full sixty percentage points short of proper representation.

It’s a similar picture to that published by university researchers in 2008, who found just 17% Coalition voting support in favour of VAD in the federal parliament, too.

As I’ve explained before, the Party leader’s public statements can be ‘persuasive,’ and Mr Matthew Guy, leader of the Victorian Parliamentary Coalition, has made his entrenched opposition to this reform loud and clear.

Inform your own voting

As debate in Victoria’s upper house commences tomorrow, we’ll be watching who’s in favour and who’s against. And we’ll report the voting record to help inform how you cast your own vote at Victoria’s state election in November next year.

In the meantime, here’s the full record of the Victorian Legislative Assembly votes.

Full voting record – Victorian Legislative Assembly 2017 VAD Bill

Ayes	47		Noes	37
Allan, Jacinta	Labor		Angus, Neil	Liberal
Andrews, Daniel	Labor		Battin, Brad	Liberal
Britnell, Roma	Liberal		Blackwood, Gary	Liberal
Bull, Josh	Labor		Blandthorn, Lizzie	Labor
Carroll, Ben	Labor		Bull, Tim	Nationals
Couzens, Chris	Labor		Burgess, Neale	Liberal
D'Ambrosio, Lily	Labor		Carbines, Anthony	Labor
Dimopoulos, Steve	Labor		Clark, Robert	Liberal
Donnellan, Luke	Labor		Crisp, Peter	Nationals
Edbrooke, Paul	Labor		Dixon, Martin	Liberal
Edwards, Maree	Labor		Fyffe, Christine	Liberal
Eren, John	Labor		Gidley, Michael	Liberal
Foley, Foley	Labor		Guy, Matthew	Liberal
Garrett, Jane	Labor		Hodgett, David	Liberal
Graley, Judith	Labor		Kairouz, Marlene	Labor
Green, Danielle	Labor		Katos, Andrew	Liberal
Halfpenny, Bronwyn	Labor		McCurdy, Tim	Nationals
Hennessy, Jill	Labor		McLeish, Cindy	Liberal
Hibbins, Sam	Greens		Merlino, James	Labor
Howard, Geoff	Labor		Northe, Russell	Ind.
Hutchins, Natalie	Labor		O'Brien, Danny	Nationals
Kealy, Emma	Nationals		O'Brien, Michael	Liberal
Kilkenny, Sonya	Labor		Pesutto, John	Liberal
Knight, Sharon	Labor		Richardson, Tim	Labor
Languiller, Telmo	Labor		Riordan, Richard	Liberal
Lim, Hong	Labor		Ryall, Dee	Liberal
McGuire, Frank	Labor		Ryan, Steph	Nationals
Morris, David	Liberal		Smith, Ryan	LIberal
Nardella, Don	Ind.		Smith, Tim	Liberal
Neville, Lisa	Labor		Southwick, David	Liberal
Noonan, Wade	Labor		Suleyman, Natalie	Labor
Pakula, Martin	Labor		Thompson, Murray	Liberal
Pallas, Tim	Labor		Tilley, Bill	Liberal
Paynter, Brian	Liberal		Wakeling, Nick	Liberal
Pearson, Danny	Labor		Walsh, Peter	Nationals
Perera, Jude	Labor		Watt, Graham	Liberal
Sandell, Ellen	Greens		Wells, Kim	Liberal
Scott, Robin	Labor
Sheed, Suzanna	Ind.
Spence, Ros	Labor
Staikos, Nick	Labor
Staley, Louise	Liberal
Thomas, Mary-Anne	Labor
Thomson, Marsha	Labor
Ward, Vicki	Labor
Williams, Gabrielle	Labor
Wynne, Richard	Labor
TOTAL AYES			TOTAL NOES
Labor	38		Labor	6
Greens	2		Greens	0
Liberal	4		Liberal	24
National	1		National	6
Other	2		Other	1
TOTAL	47		TOTAL	37
Abstained	2
Asher, Louise	Liberal
Victoria, Heidi	Liberal
Did not vote	1
Brooks, Colin	(Speaker, Labor)

Note: The vote represents 87 of 88 seats. The seat of Northcote was vacant owing to the untimely death of its representative, Fiona Richardson, from cancer.

 

Keywords: 

Assisted dying (AD) | Australia | Victoria | Analysis | Legislative reform | Poll / survey | Statistics

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