Maybe that's why Victorian upper-house MP Bernie Finn thought it was a good idea to read a 1900-word article from the self-styled psychic and medium onto the state parliamentary record last Thursday morning, deep into the marathon debate on the proposed voluntary assisted dying legislation.

It was 5am.

Don't laugh, you paid Finn to do it.

The Liberal's effort was one of the more extreme filibusters – deliberate delaying tactics – tried by a small group of mostly religiously motivated MPs during the tortured passage of the euthanasia laws though the parliament.

Reform is tough, they say, and Australia has found out the hard way recently just how easy it is for a determined minority to thwart, delay, twist and pervert the will of the people.

The wasteful and divisive postal plebiscite recently foisted on the nation by small group of religiously motivated federal MPs, was a masterclass in minority politics and they're not finished yet.

Voluntary assisted dying, much like same-sex-marriage, is a reform that clearly has the support of the Parliament and the community.

But that hasn't stopped Finn and his fellow upper house filibusterers, Inga Peulich, Rachel Carling-Jenkins and David Davis, trying every trick in the book to stall these laws.

MPs worked all night again on Tuesday, largely as a result of the delaying tactics of Finn and co, and were still at it well into Wednesday afternoon.

There was all-night debate in the lower house too on assisted dying last month as MPs in the green chamber went through the bill line-by-line, but the majority of the questions and amendments raised were genuine and relevant.

That can't be said for Finn reading out every word of the article by Dr Schurman-Kauflin, who claims to commune with the dead in order to help police catch serial killers.

It turns out, Dr Schurman-Kauflin insists, that there is growing pressure to conduct the mass-murder of disabled people because they're a burden on society.

Really, Bernie?

The Andrews government has been criticised for keeping Parliament sitting until this thing gets done.

But if Finn and co had their way, we'd still be sitting here in a year's time, probably listening to more theories from people who talk to dead people.

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