Page 4792 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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respect the rights of Canberrans. We acknowledge their interest in issues across the full breadth of society. We do not believe that they should be shut out.
There have been a number of attempts in the commonwealth parliament to restore the ability of the ACT and the Northern Territory to have the debate around voluntary assisted dying. Two bills have been brought forward in the commonwealth parliament over the past decade to restore the ability of the territories to legislate on voluntary assisted dying.
Former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope publicly supported those efforts by writing to all members of the Australian parliament, calling on them to support the democratic rights of the territories. If the capacity of the territory to make such laws were restored, any future legislative proposal would give the members of the Legislative Assembly an opportunity to examine all of the available information and vote according to their responsibility to the people of the ACT.
In June 2014 the Australian Senate considered an exposure draft of a bill to legalise euthanasia at a federal level. Both the then Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher, and Minister Rattenbury made submissions in response to that bill calling for the repeal of the Andrews bill so that the ACT community could consider the issue of euthanasia. The former Chief Minister submitted to the committee that there was no basis for the commonwealth to remove the power to legislate about euthanasia from the ACT Legislative Assembly. That support for democracy has carried through strongly to this term of government. In the first sitting days of the Ninth Assembly, Minister Rattenbury called the Andrews bill “an undemocratic and out-of-date limitation.” I agree with that assessment. The existence of the restriction on territory rights represented by the federal Euthanasia Laws Act remains a degradation of our fundamental democratic process.
While the views of Ms Cheyne on the matter of voluntary assisted dying are well known and public, I do not believe that the members who take an alternative view on the matter have grounds to oppose this motion. The concerns and the concepts that the Leader of the Opposition raised about voluntary assisted dying are important matters to be heard, and they should be heard. They should be heard, they should be debated and they should be considered along with other and competing views here on the floor of the Assembly, the chamber of the people who are elected to represent and govern the ACT.
At the heart of this motion it is about respecting the people of Canberra and being willing to take our responsibility as elected members seriously. I believe that it would be a sad reflection if members here did not trust this Assembly on important decisions such as this.
Accordingly, I hope that all members will recognise that, as representatives of Canberrans, we should be strident and unified in protecting the rights of the people in this city to be represented on issues that they care about. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
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