The Northern Territory (NT) is once again set to debate a voluntary assisted dying (VAD) bill, 30 years after being robbed of its world-first assisted law by a Commonwealth veto of its Rights of the Terminally Ill (ROTI) Act 1995, introduced by then Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Marshall Perron.
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro announced on June 27 at a Council of the Ageing (COTA NT) Seniors Expo in Darwin that the bill will be introduced during the July-August sittings. She previously promised it would be introduced “mid-year”.
It has been a long and arduous road for the NT to have its VAD law.
The Commonwealth veto of the ROTI Act, via the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, was finally overturned by the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022 after the Scott Morrison Coalition government lost the 2022 federal election.
It left the federal parliament with a diverse cross bench and a rare opportunity for democratic change. The ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2024 was quickly passed.
Finocchiaro said a VAD law for the NT was “not a priority” for her new government. But Independent MLA Justine Davis (Member for Johnston) in May last year moved a motion in that the new Country Liberal Party government support the comprehensive inquiry report by the outgoing Labor government that recommended VAD become lawful.
Davis and sections of the NT community pushed the new government to “get on with it”. Finocchiaro delayed and set up yet another inquiry. But that came back with a clear verdict: The NT should once again have its own Voluntary Assisted Dying law.
The NT Attorney General has since announced that the draft contains two widely-discredited “safeguards” despite the government’s own inquiry recommending against them.
They are the 12-month until death prognosis time frame, which means that assessing doctors must agree the applicant has 12 months or less to live. The second is a GP “gag clause”, which prevents GPs from advising patients that VAD is a legal end-of-life option unless the patient raises it first.
The CLP has said all parliamentary members will have a conscience vote.
COTA NT CEO Sue Shearer told Green Left that Dr Tanzil Rahman MLA (Member for Fong Lim), the head of last year’s NT VAD Inquiry, will speak about the draft bill at a community forum on July 6, with details to be announced on its website.
The VAD in the NT campaign group, led by Davis, also includes Sue Shearer COTA NT CEO, Judy Dent, President of NT Voluntary Euthanasia Society and former Dying With Dignity Victoria Young Ambassador Anna Philip. It continues to be supported by Dying With Dignity Victoria, Dying With Dignity NSW and Go Gentle Australia.
[Suzanne James is an advocate for voluntary assisted dying.]