Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022. This is the first bill I have risen to support in this place, and as a representative of a Northern Territory electorate, I am pleased that it is about supporting territory rights. I am a Territorian born and bred, and I well remember the shock that we felt when the federal government overturned a duly enacted territory statute, the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995. Even those who did not support that particular piece of legislation were outraged that politicians representing electorates far from the Territory could meet in Canberra and decide to squash a Territory law without the consent of those for whom the law was enacted.

When the Commonwealth parliament passed the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act in 1978, the particular cohort of federal parliamentarians who made up the parliament at the time had the wisdom and empathy to grant to Territorians the power to elect their own politicians. Those Territory politicians would then be authorised to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Northern Territory. The words 'peace, order and good government' make up a standard phrase in constitutional drafting which predates Federation and goes back to the constitutions of some of the pre-existing colonies. They formalise the purpose and scope of what legislators are expected to do. The subject matter of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was naturally and self-evidently within the ambit of peace, order and good government for a governed area and population, and, on that basis, equivalent laws relating to voluntary assisted dying have, in the more recent past, been enacted by state legislators.

There is absolutely no reason why the Territory should be different from any state in this respect, or indeed in regard to any law which could be properly characterised as being for the peace, order and good government of the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory deserves the right to legislate on issues that affect it, just like the states do. There is no defensible rationale for condemning people who live in the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory, which share similar self-government arrangements, to being second-class Australian citizens when it comes to their collective capacity to make laws for themselves in the constitutional space which in other parts of Australia is occupied and actively engaged in by state governments.

The federal government has a history, and in many respects an unmeritorious history, of intervening in the Northern Territory and of imposing ideologically driven policies from Canberra. Those who live in the Territory object to that approach. You need to understand the Territory to create effective policies for the Territory. That is what lies at the heart of this debate. On the issue of voluntary assisted dying, Territorians should be able to have their views and voices heard and acted upon. The Northern Territory's legislative assembly comprises politicians elected by Northern Territory electorates, and it is their job to reflect the views of their constituents in the legislative assembly. It is no part of the job of a federal parliamentarian whose seat is in some other part of Australia to do that.

This bill is a very simple one. In terms of the Northern Territory, it simply repeals one section, section 50A, of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act. That section was inserted by the federal government's Euthanasia Law Act 1997. It was a section that prevented the Territory from enacting laws regarding voluntary assisted dying and made the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act inoperative. However—and, in my view, importantly—this bill also ensures that the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 is not automatically reinstated. This bill would not make voluntary assisted dying legal, and indeed it shouldn't. Territorians must have the opportunity to debate any euthanasia proposal that might be forthcoming. It is a contentious issue, felt very deeply on both sides.

If proposals are made by the Northern Territory parliamentarians to introduce legislation regarding voluntary assisted dying, I will be calling for a comprehensive and in-depth education campaign. People 25 years old today were newborns when this legislation was passed in the Northern Territory parliament. No-one under the age of 40 has had a chance to learn about the issues, participate in debate or tell their elected representatives what they think. Our Northern Territory society has become much more multicultural since then. We have many more people with different religions or spiritual backgrounds who were not part of that debate the last time. And people out bush, Indigenous people, need the information and the time to become well informed about what voluntary assisted dying means. The reality is that many people on remote communities and outstations do not trust the system. They do not trust the messages that come from the broader society and they are scared about what the implications and consequences of government-sanctioned euthanasia might be. We saw this mistrust with COVID, where many people out bush believed it was a disease to be imposed on them. I saw it with euthanasia in the late nineties, when I was working in the community health sector and saw how the issue impacted Aboriginal people's willingness to come into the health clinics. We cannot allow this to happen if we have another debate. So I am pleased that this bill does not seek to automatically legalise euthanasia in the Northern Territory, and I am absolutely delighted that it restores the power of the territories to make their own laws relating to voluntary assisted dying. I support the passing of this bill.

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