Tony Burke visits Deliverance
Deliverance Guestbook
Euthanasia-NO principal Tony Burke wrote privately to the Deliverance Guestbook, but did not leave his address so we could respond to his contribution:-
- Website:
- Referred by: Just Surfed On In!
- From: Euthanasia-No
- Time: 1997-03-29 05:48:00
Comments: Dear Dr Nitschke,
I have just read Des Carne's analysis of the submissions to the Senate Inquiry and am disturbed by the inference that the one page submissions failed to register a well formed argument and were probably the result of a church based campaign.
I am trying to recall the precise details, but didn't your submission only run for a single page?
Regards Tony
Our reply:-
This is a somewhat mendacious suggestion.
Dr Nitschke wrote a single page letter to the Senate Committee of Enquiry into Voluntary Euthanasia. The letter was to advise the Committee that he had an extensive oral submission to make to the Committee, with detailed evidence about the cohort of patients seeking to make use of the NT Voluntary Euthanasia law.
Dr Nitschke's presentation to the Enquiry, of some 6 typed pages (3026 words), was circulated in printed form to members of the Senate Committee, and was printed in full in the Senate Committee Report. The text can be found on the Legal and Constitutional Committee Hansard for January 24th 1997, pp.48-52. Dr Nitschke gave further oral evidence in answer to questions by the Senate Committee totalling 12 pages (7832 words) (ibid pp.48-60).
In contrast, the vast majority of the alleged 12,577 submission received by the Senate Committee are unpublished, and the public has no means of assessing the substance of the submissions made, in terms of evidence presented in support of the arguments adduced, and so have every reason to doubt the claims of anti-euthanasia proponents that the sheer number of submissions is representative of broad public opinion.
As the overwhelming majority of the public correctly perceive, as corroborated by Michael Gordon in The Australian on March 29th (pp19-20), the passage of the Andrews Bill through the Senate was the result of a concerted political campaign by an unrepresentative influential minority who are little interested in public opinion.
Following Michael Gordon's piece, I would concede that perhaps the institutional churches had a lesser role to play in the manipulation of the Senate vote. But I am highly skeptical of Gordon's depiction of Tony Burke as the young Machiavelli, who carried his political bride across the threshold.
He does, however, remind us of the historical reality that the conservative parties do not have a monopoly on extreme social conservatism and moral prurience. Meek acquiescence to these hardline moral crusaders shows how little the ALP has learnt the lesson of its defeat.
Unless they can present a credible alternative leadership that is committed to principles of humane social and economic policies, they may well spend another 23 years in the wilderness, notwithstanding the contempt the current government has for "mainstream Australia".
When it's a choice between Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, it's little wonder the public was prepared to try the other devil.
Des Carne
Mar 9, 1997
