Page 4791 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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attention of the Assembly today and hope that after 20 years the federal parliament can respect our maturity as a jurisdiction and the right of this territory to make its own laws.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for Regulatory Services, Minister for the Arts and Community Events and Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (11.52): I too rise to support this motion. As a community, we make decisions about a range of important rights and protections in our community. We enact laws to prevent discrimination. We make decisions about criminal sentences and rights to a fair trial. We are elected as members to make these decisions on behalf of the people of Canberra.
As we are a self-governing territory, members of this community have the right to participate in this process democratically. They vote and they seek to have us as members hear and represent their views. The fact that a topic is controversial and may be interesting to national politicians should never be cause to abrogate the rights and responsibilities inherent in self-government. Yet unfortunately this is exactly what has happened when it comes to the debate on voluntary assisted dying.
The commonwealth Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, widely known as the Andrews bill after the then federal Liberal backbencher Kevin Andrews who introduced the legislation, explicitly provided that the Northern Territory and the ACT “have no power to make laws permitting or having the effect of permitting ... euthanasia ... or the assisting of a person to terminate his or her life.” When the Commonwealth legislated for the territories on this issue, it foreclosed any meaningful political discussion by the lawmakers and therefore the voters most affected by the change.
Calling on our federal colleagues and counterparts is something that we as representatives of Canberra have a responsibility to do, no matter what our views may be on the matter of voluntary assisted dying. Just that an issue provides a convenient platform for commonwealth legislators to make a statement, presumably aimed at their own electors outside the ACT, is never justification to take away the rights of Canberrans.
There are more examples than just voluntary assisted dying. I note that most recently the Canberra Liberals sought to take advantage of federal powers in the territory by going directly to two federal Liberal ministers in the hope of shutting down a pill-testing trial. The ACT government had undertaken a thorough examination of the evidence on how pill testing could help minimise the harm of illegal drugs.
The evidence, the consultation and the community support behind that initiative did not seem to be relevant to the Canberra Liberals. Not only did they choose to ignore the evidence but also, more importantly, they chose to reject democracy and instead look for an alternative authority that they could turn to. For authority is what this boils down to. Canberrans are being told that, when it comes to issues that might attract national interest, there is always the risk that a federal parliamentarian will seek to deny them access to the democratic process. In contrast, this government has a long track record of advocating for the democratic rights of Canberrans. We believe in and
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