Page 3058 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018
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and control throughout their lives, including, for some, the most important part of their lives, the end of their lives.
In supporting this remonstrance, like the Chief Minister, I want to thank the 34 senators who did the right thing by us—many of them, as the Chief Minister indicated, in spite of whatever personal views they hold. I want to make special mention of the ACT senators. Thank you to Senator Dave Smith for his support for this bill, despite not supporting voluntary assisted dying. Senator Dave Smith gets it. He gets territory rights; he gets what is important to territorians; he gets that we should be allowed to have the debate here in this chamber and stand up for the people that we represent, whatever our views are.
Senator Seselja should be ashamed, particularly as a former member of this place, as a former leader of the opposition in this place. The way he has treated Canberrans, the ACT Legislative Assembly and the people who have elected him is absolutely appalling. By standing up for his personal beliefs instead of the rights of the people he represents, Senator Seselja has rendered Canberrans voiceless on this most important issue.
I am particularly glad to hear from the Leader of the Opposition today that Canberra Liberals who want to will finally—finally—be able to speak up for this. But where were they in the lead-up to yesterday’s debate? With respect to yesterday’s debate, I am sorry, but it is too little too late. With respect to the future, I implore you—through you, Madam Speaker—to join with us together. Join with the ACT Greens and ACT Labor in standing up for territory rights constantly. I hope that the Leader of the Opposition continues to let you exercise your conscience on territory rights.
I want to briefly go through the grievances, and I will echo some of the things that the Chief Minister said. It is absolutely ridiculous—it is absurd—that if I lived 15 minutes from here, in New South Wales, I could have my views represented by my local parliamentarians in the state parliament and they could make laws for me.
With respect to the debate on Tuesday and last night, it was so frustrating to hear so many senators conflate their personal views on voluntary assisted dying with restoring territory rights. They were absolutely paternalistic. It was disgusting to see that they simply could not trust us to make the decisions for ourselves. That they have such disdain for their fellow Australians is reprehensible. They purposely misrepresented the intentions of the territory parliaments if the bill happened to pass.
Madam Speaker, you know as well as I do that there is no voluntary assisted dying scheme on the table. The Chief Minister and the Attorney-General have said time and again that no legislation will be rushed through. We have a committee process, and all members in this place on that committee, because we are represented by all members in this place, know how carefully we are considering the issue in that committee.
There is also the fact that they continue to quote one or more debunked sources as a reference point. Anything by Professor Margaret Somerville, honestly, just needs to go in the bin.
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