Page 3053 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

Australian—It’s about our rights—Article, 13 August 2018, page 5—Barr, A & Gunner.), that there is no voluntary assisted dying scheme being actively considered by the ACT Government.

Restoring Territory rights would simply give ACT citizens the same rights to decide on the issue as other Australians.

Grievances

The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory presents its grievances to the Senate of the Commonwealth Parliament following its vote on 15 August 2018

These are that:

(1) the Federal Parliament should never determine the rights of Australian citizens based on their postcodes;

(2) during the debate on the Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015, numerous Senators did one or more of:

(a) conflated their personal views on voluntary assisted dying with restoring Territory rights;

(b) misrepresented the intentions of the Territory parliaments if the Bill happened to pass;

(d) reneged on the position that they had stated to their electors;

(3) the Senate has denied the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory the ability to debate what is a health and legal issue thanks to Senators’ individual personal viewpoints, when the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory otherwise freely debates and determines policy on health and justice issues without federal interference;

(4) the Senate has refused to properly seek, let alone take into account, the views of 420 000 citizens of the Australian Capital Territory during its debate about Territory rights; and

(5) the Senate’s unjustifiable position has resulted in the distress of citizens of the Australian Capital Territory.

Petition

The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory and its democratically elected Members respectfully request that Senators reflect on their vote of 15 August 2018 which has denied citizens of the Australian Capital Territory their democratic rights.

I thank colleagues for the opportunity to debate this motion this morning. The proposed remonstrance which I have had circulated to members, for the history buffs, follows a course of action that dates back in the Westminster parliamentary system to 1641. Although I do not expect that the implications of this particular motion will be as dramatic as at that time in British political and social history, this remonstrance has

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video