Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in the very important debate on the Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015. In Yanyuwa and Garrwa, we don't really have a word for euthanasia in our language. In fact, talking to families in the region over many, many years, especially around the time of the 1997 conversation in the Northern Territory parliament around the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, I found that people in our families didn't know what euthanasia meant. So, when you think of how you explain that in language when we've got over 100 Aboriginal languages in the Northern Territory, there was a great deal of difficulty on that level.

But this bill goes to the heart of the rights of the people of the Northern Territory to make their decisions—to make decisions within the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, along with the elected reps in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. The importance in the Westminster system in this country is the importance of your democratic right to speak and your one vote—your one value—where you elect people to speak on your behalf in these assemblies.

In 2007, I was the member for Arnhem and stood in the Northern Territory parliament to speak on many issues. I was the elected member for Arnhem from 2005 until 2012. But in 2007, when the Commonwealth parliament made a decision to intervene in the lives of the people of the Northern Territory, as a legislator and as someone elected by the people I had never felt so powerless as a parliamentarian. I had never felt so powerless, as a representative of the constituency of Arnhem and the people of the Northern Territory, that I had no voice. I had no say, along with 24 other members of the Northern Territory legislature.

This was because the founding fathers of this country wrote a constitution which, yes, imperfect though it is, has stood the test of time, and included section 112 of the Constitution, which enables this parliament to overrule and to intervene in the lives of the people of the territories. And this still remains an area of debate. This bill reflects on a law that was made by the parliament of the Northern Territory and to consider giving that right back to the Northern Territory in order for the Northern Territory to make its own laws is the right thing to do. I say to the senators in this house: what makes your conscience and what makes your personal experiences any better or any less than the parliamentarians who stand in the Northern Territory assembly and the parliamentarians who stand in the ACT assembly? What gives you the authority—the moral authority, the personal authority—to think that your ability is much better and greater than theirs? This bill goes to the heart of our country's democracy: the right for people to make laws, to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. As elected representatives, they're put there by the people who voted them in.

At the time of the debate here in the federal parliament in 1997 about overturning the Northern Territory's euthanasia bill, the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, much was said about why it is that 25 people could make a decision on such a very big and important issue. Who did they think they were?

Well, I'm going to tell you who they were, because I knew and know every single one of them who stood in the parliament and debated for hours in 1995, through committees across the Territory, and then struggled with the decision of the Commonwealth two years later: the late Maurice Rioli, the member for Arafura; Eric Poole, the member for Araluen; the late Wesley Lanhupuy, the member for Arnhem; Maggie Hickey, the member for Barkly; Loraine Braham, the member for Braitling; Denis Burke, the member for Brennan; Peter Adamson, the member for Casuarina; Marshall Perron, Chief Minister and member for Fannie Bay; Terry McCarthy, the member for Goyder; Richard Lim, the member for Greatorex; Rick Setter, the member for Jingili; Mick Palmer, the member for Karama; Mike Reed, the member for Katherine; Fred Finch, the member for Leanyer; Neil Bell, the member for MacDonnell; Phil Mitchell, the member for Millner; Noel Padgham-Purich, the member for Nelson; Syd Stirling, the member for Nhulunbuy; Steve Hatton, the member for Nightcliff; Barry Coulter, the member for Palmerston; Shane Stone, the member for Port Darwin; Daryl Manzie, the member for Sanderson; and Brian Ede, the member for Stuart.

And this, Senators, was what they struggled with. Mr Perron said:

… a number of members find themselves in a dilemma over the issue before us. Indeed, I find myself among that group. Today, I will damage relationships that I value deeply. My dilemma is whether to rest my case, and not further bruise those relationships, or press ahead and try to achieve a needed reform that will diminish misery and suffering for a very small number of unfortunate citizens …

John Bailey said:

We should amend it to make it the best legislation possible. We should monitor it in the future to ensure that there are no problems or loopholes. We should delay the implementation of the legislation, firstly, until we are convinced that the community is fully aware of its implications and the fears in the community—

have been discussed and properly canvassed.

And then of course we had the Aboriginal members of the parliament. The late Maurice Rioli, the member for Arafura, said:

We heard from Aboriginal people of the Territory that they want no part of this legislation. At Yirrkala, they were saying that, for some of their people, they know when they are going to die and they wish to be at home with their family in their own country, on their own land, listening to and hearing the songs that give meaning, purpose and the strength to endure and to help the life spirit return to its place of origin so that everything will be right with the world.

Then we heard from another Aboriginal member, the member for Arnhem, Mr Lanhupuy, and he stood on his feet and he said:

Mr Speaker, in rising to speak to the private member's bill … I would like not only to address some of the issues that have confronted myself as an individual in the debate, but also to provide information—

information that he had received. And he asked the people to respect his point of view. Mr Lanhupuy voted in favour of the bill, knowing that his Aboriginal constituency may not have supported him. But it was his decision. He went with his conscience. He was very capable, a speaker of many languages. He could stand in that parliament with 24 other members and put his case—as they all did. And then they finally came to the vote on the second reading: ayes, 13; noes, 12. So what makes this Senate and the conscience of the senators here any better than the conscience of those members of the Northern Territory parliament? What makes the senators and the members in the other House so much better, so much more knowledgeable about the decisions for the Northern Territory than those members elected by the people of the Northern Territory?

I personally have great difficulty with euthanasia, but that's not what this bill's about. This bill is about the rights of the people of the Northern Territory to make their own decisions, to make their own mistakes and to create a future and a vision where they know their landscape, they know their languages, they know their history, they know their faults and they know their problems. So when the federal parliament makes decisions to intervene, it has the most dramatic impact on the lives of individuals. I know, because I speak from personal experience as a parliamentarian, as a Yanyuwa Garrwa woman from the Gulf country who's seen and witnessed time after time after time the complete disempowerment of people's abilities and the complete disrespect to enabling others to make the decisions, to stand by their decisions and to follow them through.

I spoke earlier about how in 2007, as the member for Arnhem, it was the most disempowering moment to stand in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and have your power removed for no reason, simply because of a constitutional act. But the mental and physical impact that had on people was quite profound. So I call on the senators here: when you think about your vote, your conscience, I ask you to think about the 25 members of that parliament who didn't just rush in to make a decision on such an important piece of legislation without any thought, or consideration, or angst or division amongst themselves. Those 13 ayes and 12 noes were not from one political party; they were members from all sides who walked, who crossed the floor, who checked their consciences, who talked with their families and who travelled the length and breadth of the Territory to get a sense of what the people wanted. Then they went and voted according to their conscience.

I urge all members, all senators, to support this bill. Support the right for the people of the Northern Territory and the people of the ACT to make their decisions, to be empowered, to feel worthy and to feel that, as citizens of this country, their planning, their research and their values matter, and that their dignity as people who can determine their livelihoods matters. We hear in the debate here how the Constitution and the Federation of 1901 brought the states together. There is unfinished business, certainly for the Northern Territory.

I had the honour of being the Minister for Statehood from 2008 to 2012. If anything, the next step for us is to be included as full citizens in this country, because right now we only have half a vote. In any referendum, we are considered as only half a vote. Any decision going forward should be about growing the legislative capability and the democratic rights and processes for the people of the Northern Territory if that is what they choose. Do not diminish their rights any further. Enable them to have this back. Enable them to choose, to decide, to debate, to argue, to agree or to disagree on pieces of legislation that matter for their constituency—just as you and the members in the other house do for your constituency. We in the Northern Territory are no less than any other Australian in that our rights need to be respected. So I urge the Senate and all senators to support this bill.