Page 2975 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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(c) in 1997, the Commonwealth Parliament passed the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 (Cth) which amended the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988- (Cth) and the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978- (Cth), removing the power from both territories to legalise euthanasia or assisted dying, and this ban persists to this day, 24 years later;
(d) all parties in the ACT Legislative Assembly have urged the Commonwealth Government and Parliament to lift the current restriction on ACT residents’ right to consider this issue;
(e) Northern Territory Country Liberal Senator Sam McMahon earlier this year presented the Ensuring Northern Territory Rights Bill 2021 (Cth) to the Senate, which would remove the restriction on the Northern Territory to debate and potentially legislate to re-establish a VAD framework for the Northern Territory;
(f) at the explicit request of ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja, the Ensuring Northern Territory Rights Bill 2021 (Cth) deliberately excludes the ACT from any removal of a restriction on legislating on VAD;
(g) the potential passage of the Ensuring Northern Territory Rights Bill 2021 (Cth) in its current form will leave the ACT and its 430 000 residents as having fewer democratic rights than the residents of every other jurisdiction in Australia, including the Northern Territory;
(h) the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, chaired by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson, released the report from its inquiry into the abovementioned bill on 6 October 2021 which:
(i) highlighted for the Senate’s consideration that, in the absence of an express provision in the abovementioned bill which would amend the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth), the provision inserted by the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 (Cth) would continue to apply;
(ii) noted evidence received that proceeding with the bill without including the ACT would not resolve the disparity between state and territory residents’ ability to debate and legislate in relation to VAD;
(iii) included a minority report from Senator the Hon Kim Carr, which recommended the bill not be passed in its current form, explicitly noting that Federal Labor recommends that any legislation to restore the right of the Northern Territory to debate and legislate with respect to VAD laws should restore those same rights to the ACT; and
(iv) included a minority report from the Australian Greens which recommended the bill be amended to ensure that it affords all Australian self-governing territories the same legislative rights as the Northern Territory;
(i) the disrespect the Commonwealth Government has shown to ACT and Northern Territory citizens by taking almost seven months to respond to ACT and Northern Territory Government correspondence from 3 March 2021 regarding the need to rectify the concerning persistence of the ban on the ACT’s and Northern Territory’s ability to legislate on this issue;
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