Senator GREIG (12:00 PM) —Notwithstanding the fact that we oppose this bill, we do support these amendments in the sense that they make a bad bill better. We support them because they change the wording in six different provisions from ‘material which directly or indirectly counsels or incites suicide’ to ‘material which directly or indirectly counsels or incites committing or attempting to commit suicide’—so it is a grammatical change, if you like, but it has an impact.

Essentially, they provide further clarification and they arguably narrow the scope of the bill. This is because there is arguably a difference between counselling or inciting suicide generally and counselling or inciting the committing of suicide more specifically. As I explained in my speech during the second reading debate, we Democrats are concerned about the potential impact of this bill on voluntary euthanasia organisations. These amendments will certainly not alleviate those concerns entirely, but they will improve the situation and they certainly provide more legislative clarity. On that basis, we support them.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Bill reported with amendments; report adopted.