Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015. Before I get onto the merits of the bill, I want to talk a little bit about the issue of euthanasia. As Senator Cameron has just stated, I believe that this bill before us today is about restoring territory rights; it is not about euthanasia. The bill that it's repealing is the Andrews legislation of some years back, which was about euthanasia, so I can understand many senators in this place putting their views about euthanasia, and I intend to put mine.

I have to say, at the outset, it is not something I'm completely comfortable with. I think what we need to do in this country is be far more open and far more progressive about how we discuss dying. We really don't discuss it in families as much as we should. We often get to a point where we have to deal with a relative who is no longer able to make decisions for themselves. The question of whether to increase the drug regime, which is the norm in Australia, hastening that person's death, is often left to relatives who have little or no understanding of what the life choice of the relative would have been.

My mum died about 40 years ago. It was a painful death, and for most of the time that she lingered—it was probably about a month in hospital—she was unconscious. I wasn't that old at the time. Obviously, the hospital had her on a high drug regime. I don't know what my mum would have chosen at that point. Certainly, she got ill very quickly. But there she was in the hands of medical practitioners for the last month of her life, mostly unconscious. My nanna died at the age of 100. She didn't ever want to enter a nursing home. Unfortunately, that's where she ended up. I knew that my nanna didn't want to prolong her life but, again, I had to make that decision to increase my nanna's drugs. It was a decision I wasn't comfortable making. I would have been much better off if Nanna had left explicit instructions, perhaps written instructions. She'd had explicit discussions in conversations with me, but I would have felt much more comfortable if Nanna, at some point, had been able to make that decision for herself.

My father died last year. He didn't want to die. My dad had every intention, at the age of 94, to keep on living. Thankfully, he didn't linger and, thankfully, I think he chose his time of dying. It was melanoma that took him in the end, but he died a very quick death and a painless death. For that I'm really grateful, but he wouldn't have chosen assisted suicide if he'd been able to. Nevertheless, my dad, my mum and my nanna should have been able to make that decision in a legal way and should have been able to clearly pass on their wishes to me as their daughter and their granddaughter.

I do support euthanasia, but it's not the job of this parliament to do that. It is not the job of this parliament. This bill before us today is about restoring territories' rights.

I want to talk about what's happening in Western Australia right now. My good friend the member for Morley, Amber-Jade Sanderson, moved a motion last year in the Western Australian parliament to set up a select committee to look at changing Western Australian laws so that the concept of end-of-life choices could be explored. That committee has been having public hearings. It has travelled all over the state over the last 12 months. It's due to report fairly soon. All sorts of people in Western Australia—organisations, individuals, terminally ill people, children—have been able to go to that committee and have their say. Very clearly, over the 12-month period, after exhaustive consultations, that committee will be able to come up with a report and say, with a fair degree of confidence, 'These are the views of a wide range of Western Australians.' I don't know which way that committee will end up reporting, but it's very clear that that committee has been able to consult in Western Australia.

Of course, Amber-Jade Sanderson, the member for Morley, was elected by Western Australians. Here I am being asked, potentially, to rule on an issue in the Northern Territory and the ACT when I am an elected senator from Western Australia and don't know the views of territorians. I do not know. I don't have the ability to be on a committee that spends at least 12 months consulting with territorians about their views on euthanasia, and yet, because of the way the Commonwealth has sought to exercise control over certain matters—not all matters but certain matters—in the Northern Territory and the ACT, here I am today being asked to give my view. That's something I feel really strongly about. That's not a position that I should be in.

Interestingly, on researching what happened with the Andrews legislation, I saw there were certain people, senators and MPs, who actually didn't support euthanasia but certainly supported the right of territories to make their own decisions about that. I'm sure there are people in this place who share that view, who aren't in support of euthanasia but absolutely support the right of territorians to have their say.

I believe strongly in one vote, one value. I believe in the concept of democracy. When it comes to the territories, they should have the right to make that decision for themselves. If you're a territorian and you don't agree with a proposition that the government has put forward and that happens time and time again, you have the right at the ballot box to change your vote or to vote for somebody else who more evenly represents your view. The territorians don't have any right about whether they vote for me or not, because I'm a Western Australian senator. That's the right of Western Australians.

I come from a position of saying: this is a matter for territorians. As we've heard, the ACT has said it doesn't actually have a view right now on whether it will go ahead with a bill to introduce euthanasia, but it certainly should be given the opportunity. The rights to decide should rest in the ACT and the Northern Territory.

Indeed, we saw when Paul Keating was the Prime Minister that he could have overridden those euthanasia laws that had been passed in the NT and subsequently the ACT. He chose not to, because he believed in the concept of the territories having rights. We saw that change when John Howard became the Prime Minister. Presumably, he had the view that he didn't support euthanasia, and so we saw that ability for the territories to have that legislation being withdrawn. By any measure, that is not right. Just because it's allowed under the Commonwealth—and I understand that the Andrews legislation was the first time ever that that power had been exercised—we can't have MPs or senators with a particular personal whim such as deeply personal views on euthanasia then use that personal view to simply take what is available under Commonwealth acts to overrule the views of voters in the ACT and the NT.

That's what this bill is about today. It is about restoring the rights. It's paternalistic. It's 2018. We should not be making decisions on behalf of voters in those two territories about what happens in those territories. That properly rests with the territorian governments and not with me as a WA elected senator. Whether or not I support euthanasia is not the point. The point is the vote properly rests not with me but with territorians.