COMMENT:

Tribute of the week goes to David Seymour, whose End of Life Choice Bill is back and being debated in Parliament. It has been a fascinating exercise to watch and follow.

I have no vested interest in the subject. I broadly support the idea that you own your life, and no one has the right to tell you what to do with it.

But I have been impressed with Seymour, not because of a basic support of the idea, but by the sheer size of the journey he's been on.

Politics these days is made up of such frippery. There's so much pointless noise and anger, finger pointing, virtue signalling, and blatant point scoring. Like Julie Anne Genter's nonsense this week over hospitals, their carbon footprint, and serving less meat. It's all comments, ideas, press releases that lead exactly nowhere and induce scorn towards the system and its participants.

And yet in the middle of all of that, is a bit of legislation like Seymour's that stands a chance not just of success, but of changing the fabric of this country for generations.

And in that is the true value of the political game. It's the profound stuff that reminds you of its actual importance. Once you peer past the sideshows you see the actual workings of the system, and the power that system has to direct, shape, and reshape all our lives.

And what makes Seymour's efforts so laudable is that this is not new. Euthanasia, you could have argued, is one of those subjects that was easy to give up on. Religious freedom, fluoride, abortion, euthanasia - there are touchstone issues where the camps are settled, divided, and never the twain shall meet. These are the issues where you would be easier to walk away from, than have a go at.

This one is particularly interesting given it's one of those issues that's not just complex, but history shows is dealt with in a way by the politicians of the day completely out of step with the people they allegedly represent.

You'll note that it is New Zealand First to their credit that has got this in front of us in the form of a referendum. Surely worthy of such an event given issues are rarely put in front of us at all. And the latest one that is, in a show of sheer politics and superficiality, is the dope vote.

Euthanasia is profoundly more important than weed, yet if it wasn't for Winston Peters and co we would have no say. And what say we did have at the select committee they butchered by failing to recommend anything.

Now, this ain't over yet, not by a long way thanks to Maggie Barry and her mates, who despite what she claims is doing herself no favours by stalling with her 100 plus amendments.

And it's that part, that slow grinding part, the endless patience required, the changes, the amendments, and the negotiations on Seymour's part you have to admire. What an arduous, laborious, patience-sapping exercise this must have been.

But he is closer now than anyone appears to have ever been and if he gets it across the line he has a place in the political history books - and not all of them can say that.

David Seymour will have done something genuinely substantive, and that's why you go to Wellington and that why he deserves our admiration.