Page 4389 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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Mr Deputy Speaker, we must hear those words. We must consider those words. It is not unexpected that a cleric of the Catholic Church would make comments of that kind. That does not mean that they should not be considered and taken on their merits as an argument against this proposal. I believe that unless the questions I have raised can be answered satisfactorily, and as yet I have heard no satisfactory answer to them, we must be very careful about embarking on a path that would lead to euthanasia being available in the ACT.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.53): I believe that we owe a debt of thanks to Mr Moore for having brought forward this subject as a matter of public importance. It is a matter on which there ought to be a large amount of debate, and we should be grateful to him for having taken up the cudgels.
I think it was the adoption of a policy by my own party, the Australian Labor Party, that gave rise to this debate, at least in this forum, and I want to say a couple of things about the policy of my party. Any policy adopted by the Australian Labor Party has been through an exhaustive process, a public process and a democratic process. Policies within my party are made, usually, through a policy committee. They go through a process of debate and they are put to the annual conference of the party before they are adopted. So, there has been a good amount of debate, a good amount of discussion, of any policy my party adopts. There is nothing secretive in that process. It is a process in which all party members have an opportunity to take part.
I am sure members will be aware that the Labor Party in the ACT is the largest community party, and therefore its views could be said to be generally those of the community from which we are drawn. Having adopted a policy, the Labor Party does not bind its elected representatives to the timing of the implementation of such a policy, nor could they. They adopt it as a policy and, as is indicated in that policy, it is left to a Labor government to get on with the implementation. I say that because I believe that it is very important to note that I consider euthanasia to be an issue where a great deal of community consultation, community debate, is still to occur.
I was alarmed to read in the Canberra Times editorial of 8 November this year this statement:
... the local ALP prepares a Bill to legalise euthanasia.
That statement is quite wrong. The local ALP, or the Labor Government, as I think it is more correctly known, is not preparing the Bill, and, had the writer of that editorial bothered to check, he or she would have been put right on
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