Page 3055 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018

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(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—

and, I note, more than 250,000 citizens of the Northern Territory, and the combined population of the territories is greater than the state of Tasmania—

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.

Therefore, this remonstrance petitions the Senate on behalf of members of this place, who have been democratically elected, that we:

… respectfully request that Senators reflect on their vote of 15 August 2018 which has denied citizens of the Australian Capital Territory their democratic rights.

In bringing this motion forward today, I wish to acknowledge and thank all those senators, all 34 of them, who respected the rights of territorians and of this Legislative Assembly and the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly to debate these issues. I acknowledge that many of those senators have a personal view that would not be supportive of voluntary assisted dying but they were able to set aside that personal position on voluntary assisted dying and see this as an issue of territory rights.

I particularly want to acknowledge senators from the Northern Territory on both sides of politics who supported this bill in the Senate last night. I also acknowledge the bipartisanship in the Northern Territory parliament, where both the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory parliament, in spite of whatever personal views they hold on voluntary assisted dying, were able to unite on the issue of territory rights.

It is indeed very disappointing that in this debate the only territory senator not to support territory rights represents the Canberra Liberals, and the only political leader in either territory who did not support territory rights is the Leader of the Opposition in this place. That is disappointing. Whatever views Senator Seselja and the Leader of the Opposition hold on voluntary assisted dying—and I respect their right to hold a

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