Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill, the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2018, will remove the constraints that the Commonwealth government shamefully placed on the legislative powers of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory in 1997 at the behest of one of our current sitting members. This bill restores the democratic rights of citizens in the territories by removing a constraint on the legislative authority of their elected representatives which does not exist anywhere else in Australia or for any other Australians. The bill recognises that territorians deserve the same democratic freedoms as other Australians. This bill will ensure that the parliaments of both the Northern Territory and the ACT and the people they represent can interrogate the issues in a time and manner of their choosing with the benefit of recent legislative work in the area—that is, the rights of the terminally ill.

I want to acknowledge the work and the contributions which have been made by my colleagues the member for Canberra, the member for Fenner and the member for Solomon in this place and my mate Senator Malarndirri McCarthy in the Senate. Shamefully, the Senate refused to restore these rights to Australians living in the territories of the ACT and the Northern Territory.

This bill is not about euthanasia, as some want it to be. It's about the rights of the territories and the rights of territory citizens. Why are we treated as second-class citizens? Why is it justifiable for the Victorian parliament to pass assisted dying legislation last year in 2017 without interference from the Commonwealth, because the Commonwealth simply can't interfere in that bill, but, because the Commonwealth has the power under the constitution to determine ultimately what passes for legislation in the legislatures of both the Northern Territory and the ACT, it sought to override the will of the people expressed in the parliament of the Northern Territory over euthanasia legislation now 20 years ago? That was shameful. It can't do it for any other Australians, but our Senate colleagues—some of them on my own side—had the gall very recently to hide behind the euthanasia debate as a mechanism to oppose this legislation. Well, that was shameful.

We territorians should have the same rights as every other Australian. We territorians should elect, and do elect, our own territory governments. Who we elect is our responsibility. The laws they pass are ultimately our responsibilities. But what we're seeing now, as a result of opposition of the legislation in the Senate, is a desire by this parliament to continue the stupidity of a colonial regime which says, 'We, the masters in Canberra, can override the rights of territorians, whether they live in the ACT or the Northern Territory.' I put it to you: it is plain wrong. It is morally wrong. It's unjustifiable. That doesn't stop territorians debating issues to do with euthanasia and other issues, and to choose to make their own decisions, nor does it prevent people in this place having a debate about euthanasia and deciding what their position is on euthanasia. But that's not what this bill is about. This bill is purely and simply about making sure that the people of the Northern Territory and the ACT have the same rights—the same rights—as every other Australian.

We're held captive because of a constitutional arrangement of over a century ago. It's time to actually understand that we live now in 2018—2018 is our opportunity. Our opportunity is to make sure that every Australian is treated equally under the law and before the law, with the right to make laws of their own in their own jurisdictions, whether they are in the ACT, the Northern Territory or Victoria—where it has already been done—without any interference from the Commonwealth.

I don't think there is an argument here. I would just say to those people who have hidden behind euthanasia to vote against this legislation in the Senate: wise up and understand that every Australian deserves the same rights as you have in this place. If you're representing the ACT here, you don't have the same rights as someone from New South Wales. That is wrong. I should have the same rights as every other Australian. (Time expired)

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the sentiments and words of the member for Lingiari and his passion on this issue. He's been advocating on this issue for as long as we can all remember, being the longest serving member currently in the House of Representatives. As he walks out very wearily from this Chamber, he's still there fighting for the Territory, and that's the main thing. So hats off to the member for Lingiari for his passion and continued advocacy for the Northern Territory.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my two territorian friends the member for Fenner, who's on the other side of the lake from my electorate, and the member for Solomon for bringing forward this private member's bill on territory rights, a topic that I can't believe that we're still debating in 2018. I've got to be frank: I can't believe that we are still debating this. We're still fighting for territorians to have the same rights as those in the states and to have the equality that the states enjoy in the way they are governed and represented and the way that their voice is heard. In 2018, we're having this debate about equality and enfranchisement of the people of the territories.

How would you feel, Deputy Speaker, if your state or your community did not have the opportunity through the state government to legislate on whatever it wanted? How would you feel about that? You would feel angry and resent the fact that your community does not enjoy the rights of someone over the border. My community does not have the same rights as that of the member for Eden-Monaro, 20 kilometres away. You have complete equality for those 20 kilometres away from where we are now, yet here in the territory my community does not enjoy equality in the way it can govern and the way that the people are represented.

It wasn't until 1966 that federal representatives in Canberra were given full voting rights here in this parliament. Then, 23 years later, the first Legislative Assembly was elected, and Canberrans were finally given the power to decide the future for their own communities. In those early days of self-government, I worked for the first assembly elected and for the first ACT chief minister, Rosemary Follett, who was the first woman to lead an Australian state or territory government and was very proudly from Labor.

Canberra has been progressive since its inception. The whole idea of Canberra was created on the notion of democracy and equality. Yet here in this nation's capital, which physically and philosophically is designed to embody those notions of democracy and equality, unfortunately those democratic equal rights are denied to the people of Canberra because they live in a territory, because of the constitutional baggage that this nation has inherited—as my colleague the member for Lingiari said, the colonial powers that still exist and that deny territorians the same rights as those in the states.

It's not just our legislative rights, our ability to pass whatever legislation we want without the federal government intervening in our democratically elected Legislative Assembly; it's also the fact that we are significantly underrepresented.

I know that some of my colleagues here are from Tasmania. It is usually a source of great contention in Canberra—this is meant with the greatest of love—that Tasmanians are incredibly well represented, and I will just keep it at that. Compare Tasmania, 500,000 people, to the ACT, 415,000 people, and we have a unicameral assembly of 25 representatives. We now have three representatives in the lower house and two representatives in the Senate. The representation in the Northern Territory is similar to that, in terms of numbers. Let's not talk about Tasmania. It's a great pleasure and honour to speak on this bill tonight. It underscores the fact that we want equality here in the territory, and we want democracy here in the territory in 2018.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired, and the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.