Australia Conscience votes have been held in the
Australian Parliament and in State Parliaments on issues of
becoming a republic,
abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, sex discrimination, prostitution, and bioethical issues like assisted reproduction and stem cell research, besides other issues.
Canada The decision to grant a free vote lies with party leaders in Canada. Sometimes a vote may be free for some parties but not for others. For instance, when the
Conservative government of
Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed a motion to re-open the debate on Canada's
same-sex marriage laws, his Conservatives and the opposition
Liberals declared it a free vote for their members, while the
Bloc Québécois and the
New Democrats both maintained party discipline to defeat the measure.
New Zealand In the
New Zealand Parliament, the
Speaker decides if a vote will be a personal vote. They may do so after any MP requests it following a contested voice vote. The Speaker usually agrees to such a request, but not always. A personal vote differs from a party vote in that MPs must physically enter a lobby to vote on a motion, rather than a party's
whip calling out the votes on behalf of its MPs. Legislation that was treated as a conscience issue includes the
Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986,
Prostitution Reform Act 2003,
Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007,
Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013,
End of Life Choice Act 2019 and
Abortion Legislation Act 2020. The most common topic for conscience votes in New Zealand has been alcohol; a conscience vote relating to alcohol has happened every decade since the 1890s. In the case of a party vote, a party can decide to allow its members to vote differently from one another, in a split party vote. Thus individual parties can allow their members a conscience vote even when the Speaker has not declared a personal vote.
United Kingdom In the
British House of Commons there used to be a conscience vote every few years on the restoration of the
death penalty, which had been abolished in 1964 (except for
treason, for which it was abolished in 1998 in the
Human Rights Act). It had always been rejected and this practice has now been abandoned. In Britain, laws concerning
abortion have always been subject to a free vote. The proposed bans on
hunting with dogs proposed by
Tony Blair's government were the subject of several free votes in Parliament from 2001. Similarly, when House Republican leadership decided not to whip votes against the
second impeachment of
Donald Trump,
Liz Cheney—the third-highest-ranking Republican—referred to the matter as a "vote of conscience". At other times the terms are used to describe a vote based on personal morals rather than political considerations. ==See also==