Page 523 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 17 February 2016
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only be a good thing because it helps to address some of that discomfort and it helps us to develop policy to more accurately reflect community desires.
Certainly, as members of this place know, I have taken a great interest in this issue, and my party, the Greens, have also taken a great interest in the issue. I moved a motion in the Assembly last year, which was supported by members of the Labor Party, which resulted in us writing to the federal government calling on it to repeal the so-called Andrews bill, which prevents the ACT from making its own laws on the issue of voluntary euthanasia. I note for the interest of members that my party is also gathering signatures on a petition asking for the same thing. If anybody wants to drop by my office and sign that petition, they would be more than welcome. I am more than happy to add names to the list. Mr Hanson, I do not know whether you have been up to my office. You have been; you know where it is. Feel free to drop by.
On a serious note, I think it is quite appropriate for the Assembly to discuss this matter, and that members of this place as well as members of the community agitate on this issue. I do not accept Mr Hanson’s view that this is a federal issue and that we should not talk about it in the Assembly. It affects members of our constituencies, citizens of the ACT, and it is quite important that we discuss it in this place because it is an issue of importance to many Canberrans.
The call is for the federal government to restore rights to the territory—rights that were taken away in an unprecedented political manoeuvre. If it had happened to any of the states of this commonwealth, there would have been absolute outrage but, because it was done to the territory, somehow it is seen as acceptable to treat our citizens as second-class citizens. We are supposed to be a territory with full rights to make laws for the peace, order and good government of our citizens. We have democratic elections and an Assembly. We have been given the power to change the size of our Assembly. The power of the executive government to veto our laws has been removed, yet there is a bizarre, out-of-place restriction on us that says we cannot make laws on euthanasia. This law has to go. Clearly, in light of that comment and my earlier position as stated in this chamber, I will not be in a position to support Mr Hanson’s amendment today.
I am, however, genuinely supportive of Ms Porter’s motion today. I am very interested in her suggestion that we investigate whether my health record could support a personal online-based advance care directive that could be accessed by health professionals who treat a critically or terminally ill person. This and other practical steps to better support the dignity of those dying or facing certain death due to suffering terminal illness are important while we wait for the commonwealth government either to change its patronising view of the ACT’s legislative powers or perhaps for it just to be changed through the upcoming election to better reflect the views of a large proportion of modern Australia.
As the motion says, as Ms Porter has to her credit asked us to consider, and as I and members of all progressive parties have been saying, there is a growing call for the community to have greater choice and greater control over their manner of dying. It is a call for careful planning, for inclusion of personal wishes, and ultimately a call for
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