Page 1450 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 June 2022
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I think we are better placed than ever to be able to work with a commonwealth territories minister who understands the ACT. I warmly welcome Kristy McBain’s re-election, with a massive swing in her favour, and her appointment as Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories.
Of course, the ACT government has long been opposed to what can only be described as an ideologically and politically motivated decentralisation of the Australian public service from Canberra. To put it frankly, public servants who want to live here, who have their children in school here and who have local community ties with Canberra were sick of the constant uncertainty applied by the likes of Barnaby Joyce and Bridget McKenzie to their employment future and the future of their lives. It is a significant relief for those people that they, and indeed the many businesses and workers who rely on them, will now be treated with respect and granted greater certainty over their working lives.
Perhaps the matter that best surmises the former coalition government’s disdain for the ACT is the issue of territory rights. Of course, back in the 90s the Andrews bill was enacted to prevent the Northern Territory and the ACT parliaments from ever debating voluntary assisted dying legislation. In the time since that bill has passed, all Australian states have now enacted legislation in this area, and the territories are now the only places in Australia not able to introduce such schemes.
Every state across Australia has now passed laws enabling voluntary assisted dying in specific circumstances, with New South Wales the final state to pass its own legislation less than a fortnight ago. In doing so, I noted at the press conference that that group of politicians representing all political parties then passed the mantle to the territories to continue this important national reform. But before we can do that, we need the federal parliament to treat us with some respect. There are 700,000 Australians who live in the territories, and their parliaments cannot debate this issue because of an outdated act of the federal parliament.
Of course, with the passing of the New South Wales legislation, this became a federal election issue, so it was no surprise that, when asked, Mr Morrison said that he would not have changed the current situation if he had continued as Prime Minister. Let us not forget, of course, that when this issue came up for a vote in the federal Senate in 2018, one of our own senators voted against restoring territory rights, despite knowing that this was something that the overwhelming majority of his constituency wanted. We saw the result a week and a half ago—the build-up of annoyance at votes being cast by that senator against territory rights.
I think we can say conclusively now that Canberrans are sick of being treated like second-class citizens. We know that Canberrans, like so many Australians, care deeply about this issue, and they have every right to feel frustrated and disappointed by the political inaction over the past decade. They voted overwhelmingly a week and a half ago to change that, and we look forward to seeing that happen.
I am delighted that the Prime Minister has indicated his support—well before the election—for territory rights. The election of a more socially progressive parliament, in the house and the Senate, and having two ACT senators, both of them—our very
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