The Hoot: VAD's passed, but what happens next?

Good news! Claire Fenwicke is back, meaning Murtagh’s evil reign has ended.

And just in the nick of time.

This week, the owl’s talk about where to next for voluntary assisted dying now that it’s been passed, which inevitably brings us to slippery slopes. And all was going well until Murtagh decided to mention Zed (you remember him?)

Murtagh argues that if you think a law is immoral, as Zed and Kevin Andrews did when VAD was first proposed in the territories, then it’s your duty to stop it. That’s what you’d do, right? And don’t we want politicians to do what they think is right, not expedient or in their self-interest?

Maybe, but Murtagh knows he is – again – in the minority and won’t be winning many (or any) friends in the Territory, although Edmund Burke might be smiling.

Then, attention is turned to the gold-plated speechwriter in the office of Bill Shorten. Once you get past the astronomical salary ($310,000 a year, thank you very much), does it give clues to the problem the government will have in its efforts to cut contractor costs? If it has to pay more than double APS rates to get a pen for hire, how are they going to get IT specialists?

And finally … we go to Kambah! The biggest suburb in the southern hemisphere (if you don’t count the bigger ones).