Do you feel passionately about assisted dying (for or against)? Interested in finding out more about Territory rights? Local politicians will be on tap at the pub on Wednesday night.
Four months ago, ACT political parties – Labor, Green, and Liberal – put aside their differences and unanimously moved that the Federal Government should restore territory rights to the ACT, allowing the Legislative Assembly to determine its own policy on euthanasia.
Tomorrow night, Labor’s Tara Cheyne, Minister for Human Rights, Greens leader Shane Rattenbury, and Liberal deputy leader Giulia Jones, Shadow Minister for Health and Wellbeing, will discuss the issues and challenges the ACT faces in its Battle for Territory Rights.
The Politics in the Pub event at the Verity Lane Market on Wednesday evening is a great opportunity, Ms Cheyne said, to learn more about the MLAs’ opinions.
More than 450 people have registered to attend; Ms Cheyne is not surprised to see so much interest. “We know that around 80% of the population supports voluntary assisted dying – and there is now a groundswell of support for restoring territory rights,” she said. “Momentum has been building over the last four years, with awareness of this absurd ban and anger around it growing.
“The more this injustice is discussed, the better. We know Canberrans care – and we need to ensure all Australians and their federal representatives care. The more pressure builds to right this wrong across Australia – the more voices advocating, the louder they are – the harder it will be for this Federal Government to ignore it.”
Since 1997, the ACT and the Northern Territory have not been able to pass laws permitting euthanasia. The Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 (‘the Andrews Bill’) inserted restrictions into the territories’ self-government acts, preventing those parliaments from legislating on voluntary assisted dying, Ms Cheyne explained. She and almost every other ACT politician want those passages struck out.
“Removing the ban is a simple legislative amendment that costs the Federal Government nothing. But, as long as it persists, voluntary assisted dying can never be an option in the ACT or the NT.”
The territories were being left behind, she argued; by the end of the year, assisted dying could be legal in every state. Voluntary assisted dying is already legal in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania, while Queensland and NSW will debate bills soon.
“While the states press on, the territories are noticeably absent from this important debate,” Ms Cheyne said. “It’s not for a lack of want. Rather, it’s because we’re subject to decades-old federal legislation which bans us.
“As more and more states legislate for voluntary assisted dying, the persistence of this situation is increasingly untenable and indefensible.”
Ms Cheyne considers this issue a matter of human rights. As long as this ban persists, she argues, ACT citizens don’t have the same democratic rights as any other citizen.
“By prohibiting the citizens of the ACT and the NT from deciding for themselves, through their elected representatives, whether to legislate for voluntary assisted dying, the restrictions placed on us by the Andrews legislation may limit the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, or enjoy their human rights without distinction or discrimination of any kind.”
The Federal Parliament must resolve the issue of territory rights, Ms Cheyne believes. “This could be done right now, and if a member of the current government chose to champion the issue, there is a good chance it could be resolved.”
Locally, she said, Elizabeth Lee and the Canberra Liberals united with ACT Labor and the ACT Greens in March to lobby the Federal Parliament on restoring territory rights.
“However,” Ms Cheyne claims, “the biggest challenge in the way of territory rights is the Federal Government’s lack of will, thanks to the ideology of some of its key figures” – including that of ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja.
Senator Seselja, an outspoken opponent of euthanasia, fears the ACT Government would pass the “most extreme assisted-suicide legislation in the country”. In a Canberra Times opinion piece, he claimed that as in Europe and Canada, children, severely disabled babies, people with dementia and mental illness could all be euthanised.
“It is hugely disappointing but not surprising that he has used his piece to scaremonger about voluntary assisted dying,” Ms Cheyne said. “We have been clear that, if our rights to be able to legislate on this issue were restored, we would have a conversation with the community regarding any legislation – just like all the states have done and are doing.”
Earlier this month, Labor Senator Katy Gallagher ran a petition against Senator Seselja, accusing him of blocking an NT Senator’s private member’s bill to let the territories legislate on euthanasia, and claiming he stood in the way of restoring the ACT Legislative Assembly’s right to make laws for its own citizens. Senator Seselja retorted that she was “playing politics with an issue of life and death”.
“Senator Seselja does not have the best interests of the ACT in mind, only his own conservative values,” Ms Cheyne said. “Senator Seselja should be concerning himself with issues that Canberrans want tackled at the federal level: the vaccine rollout, purpose-built quarantine and real action on climate change – and not standing in the way of our democratic rights.”
Meanwhile, ACT Federal Labor politicians want the party’s election platform to prioritise debate on territory rights.
Politics in the Pub: The Battle for Territory Rights, Verity Lane Market, Wednesday 28 July 6-7pm. The event is hosted by the Australia Institute (in collaboration with the Canberra Times).
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