Page 2976 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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(j) the response received from Commonwealth Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, dated 1 October 2021 which:
(i) advised that the Commonwealth Government does not have any current plans to introduce legislation to repeal the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 (Cth); and
(ii) failed to address the human rights considerations explicitly raised in the correspondence from the ACT and Northern Territory Governments; and
(2) calls on the ACT Legislative Assembly to:
(a) reaffirm its commitment to ensuring that the ACT Legislative Assembly should have the same ability to debate this important issue as other legislatures across Australia do, and that ACT residents should have the same democratic rights as residents across Australia;
(b) condemn the removal of the ACT from the Ensuring Northern Territory Rights Bill 2021;
(c) denounce the correspondence received from the Commonwealth Attorney-General in October 2021 regarding Territory rights; and
(d) refer this motion to all Senators and Members of the Commonwealth Parliament, attaching the correspondence referred to at 1(i), 1(j) and 2(c).
I have no pleasure in bringing this motion today. I am sure Minister Rattenbury finds no pleasure in it, either. But we do so because the ACT finds itself in the most appalling situation. It is the most unacceptable situation and one that ACT residents will not stand for. It is one that we, as the ACT government and members of ACT Labor and the ACT Greens, will not stand for. We will stand up. We will do what it takes. We will not let this go. Our parties have given this commitment before; today we firmly give this commitment again.
While members are aware of the history, it is worth repeating again and again because it demonstrates just how ridiculous and how untenable this situation is. Quite simply, through the Constitution, the commonwealth parliament has special powers to intervene in the affairs of the territories. The Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction to legislate for voluntary assisted dying when the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly passed the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in 1995. In response, in 1997, the Commonwealth parliament passed the Euthanasia Laws Act, also known as the Andrews bill, to amend the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act and the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act, removing the power of both territories to legislate to legalise euthanasia or assisting dying. The ban was cruel. It was needless and it was senseless.
The devastation was in its simplicity. Straightforward amendments, new provisions in the ACT and Northern Territory’s self-government acts, rendered citizens of the territories as second-class when compared to the states. This ban persists to this day, 24 years later. Fast forward to 2017. Victoria became the first state to legislate for voluntary assisted dying. It now has a scheme which has been operating for some time. Then Western Australia legislated in 2019. Its scheme has also begun operating this year. And now it is 2021. Tasmania, South Australia and, three weeks ago,
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