Minister Guy Barnett is one of the incumbents in Lyons who is contesting this election.
Guy Barnett, when he was a Senator for Tassie, was one of those who pressed for the Commonwealth Marriage Act to be amended to say that marriage was between one man and one woman.
As member for Lyons he has continued to promote life. This is an extract from his recent second reading speech in relation to the Assisted Suicide Bill:
“Madam Speaker, all MPs in this place desire a more caring, compassionate, loving society where the frail, aged, disabled, sick and the vulnerable are protected and supported. Like many in this place, I have also experienced the loss of people close to me through terminal illness. My father passed away from motor neurone disease in 1985 when I was aged 23, and my much-loved mother from an incurable cancer in 2015.
“However, the End-of-Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill is ill-conceived and sadly, in my view, has a perverse effect of delivering a less caring, less compassionate, and less loving society. The bill attempts to establish a legislative and administrative framework for Tasmanians to commit suicide with the assistance from the medical profession… It undermines the dignity that should be ascribed to each and every person. It is opposed by key institutions and organisations, including the Australian Medical Association, faith-based organisations and many in the community.”
Guy’s speech reflects his clear thinking on these vitally important life issues. Please pray for him and encourage him in the lead up to the election.
As a separate issue – if you read about the social media posts of Labor candidate for Clark, you would have been understandably distressed. I wrote to the Leader of the Opposition and Mr Mitchell in relation to those posts.
We also had the first National Day of Action phone-in for Tassie last Saturday. Twenty-eight volunteers made over 1200 phone calls and had about 500 meaningful conversations with people about the election. All were directed to find more information about candidates at our Tasmania Votes website.
