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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3665 ..

MRS LITTLEWOOD (continuing):

I am afraid I cannot support the Crimes (Assisted Suicide) Bill at this particular stage. There are a number of aspects there that I am not very comfortable with and, therefore, I will not support that. Yes, I will be supporting the Medical Treatment (Amendment) Bill as I, again, come down in favour of patients' rights. I feel that patients do have the right to determine what they wish and do not wish to do. So, that is where I am coming from. I will be supporting the referendum Bill. I do not expect it will get up; but I support it, irrespective of that, as a matter of principle. I will be supporting the Medical Treatment (Amendment) Bill also.

MR CORBELL (4.49): This is an issue which has been the subject of much heated debate during my time here in the Assembly, even though that has been only nearly 11 months now. What I find interesting about this debate is that Mr Moore is presenting us with an opportunity to legalise something which I support. He is presenting this Assembly, albeit in a technical way, with an opportunity to legalise something that I support. I have made clear from the very beginning that I believe voluntary active euthanasia is something that should be allowed in the Australian Capital Territory. For that reason, I was interested to hear Mrs Littlewood making comments that she is concerned about euthanasia; but when the numbers depended on her to have a law passed in this place to allow it, she was a mile away. I am concerned now to hear her playing a different tune.

The three Bills that Mr Moore presents to us today are all Bills that deal with the issue of euthanasia, but in remarkably varying ways. I would like to address each of them in turn. The Euthanasia Referendum Bill, from my perspective, is very much a Bill designed for a political purpose. It is designed to make a statement, but it is a statement which would have absolutely no effect because the power for this Assembly to legislate for voluntary active euthanasia in the form of the Bill that Mr Moore presented to the Assembly earlier this year has been taken away from us. It has been taken away by the Federal Parliament, and no amount of money we spend on a referendum will bring it back. Lobbying politically at a Federal level, even a change of government at a Federal level, maybe would bring it back; I do not know. But I know that a Euthanasia Referendum Bill, allowing for a referendum in the Australian Capital Territory at the Legislative Assembly election in February next year, will not. From that perspective, I cannot support that Bill. It is a needless waste of the resources of the Territory.

The Crimes (Assisted Suicide) Bill is, from my perspective, the most difficult piece of legislation I have had to deal with in this suite of three Bills. Now that it has come down to the crunch, my feeling is that I cannot support this Bill. I cannot support it, because it is allowing for euthanasia by the back door and does not do any credit to the debate. I cannot allow myself to vote for a piece of legislation which will allow someone to assist someone else to die and provide the same penalty as a speeding ticket. I cannot allow the opponents of euthanasia to have that ammunition against what I believe is a very important social issue. By passing this Bill, we give the opponents of euthanasia very strong ammunition. That, in a nutshell, is the reason why I am not prepared to support the Crimes (Assisted Suicide) Bill. I also read with some concern the issues that have been raised by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee in its report that was brought down in this place yesterday, and those issues have already been addressed by Mr Humphries and Mr Berry. I think they have covered quite adequately the concerns there. I echo those concerns.

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