Page 2979 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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worth drawing the Assembly’s attention to the fact that the correspondence received from the commonwealth Attorney-General appears to actively and blatantly contradict the intentions of Senator McMahon’s private member’s bill, and wilfully ignores it. This is beyond curious given that the private member’s bill was generated from within the same party.
Following its introduction, Senator McMahon’s bill was referred for inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. The committee inquired into and provided a report on the bill on 6 October 2021. We note that, following its inquiry, the committee has not provided any recommendations in its report. However, the Liberal-chaired committee did highlight that if other territories, including the ACT, were not included with regard to removing the prohibition on legislating for voluntary assisted dying, the disparity between state and territory residents’ ability to debate and legislate in relation to voluntary assisted dying would not be resolved.
It is worth drawing attention to Professor George Williams’s submission, which sums it extraordinarily well, and serves as a further indictment on the stance Senator Seselja and, through him, Senator McMahon, have taken. He said:
The restriction on enacting laws with respect to euthanasia should be repealed. However, there is no justification for only removing this bar from the Northern Territory. The same issues of self-government and democratic rights apply with respect to the ACT, and so the equivalent clause in its self-government act should also be repealed. Without this, this Bill would introduce another invidious form of discrimination, this time between Australians living in the Northern Territory and the ACT.
Minority reports from federal Labor and the Australian Greens also supported the inclusion of the ACT in the abovementioned bill. Noting the minister’s correspondence, it is not clear that Senator McMahon’s bill will be debated before the federal election. We are, after all, talking about a commonwealth government that prides itself on its attitude of dismissing, evading and disrespecting simple ambitions that accord with democratic rights. So it would not be out of character for them to not bring on debate on this.
Nevertheless, we strongly recommend that members of the commonwealth parliament acquaint themselves with this bill; this Senate standing committee’s report and the strength of the evidence received; the minority reports; and the correspondence from the commonwealth Attorney-General. Because whether or not this bill is debated before the federal election, there is another guarantee—that this is absolutely an election issue. We have leadership from Anthony Albanese, who has made clear that territory rights should be restored.
We—ACT residents, Northern Territory residents, and citizens across the country who are appalled at the commonwealth government’s treatment of us—can send a very firm message to the commonwealth government. So today, as an Assembly, we doggedly reaffirm our commitment to not letting up on this issue. We condemn the removal of the ACT from the Ensuring Northern Territory Rights Bill, which occurred after the explicit intervention of ACT Liberal Senator Seselja. We denounce Senator
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