Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Restoring Territory Rights Bill 2022. The bill that is before us today is fundamentally about equality. It is about restoring the rights of the territory legislators so that they are equal to those of the state parliaments. By doing this, we restore the rights of electors in the ACT and the Northern Territory. For too long, people of the ACT and the NT have elected representatives in their territory parliaments who have fewer rights than those in state parliaments. Their parliaments have been specifically prevented from considering one particular issue. This prohibition makes our democracy unequal.

For 25 years our parliament has persisted in discriminating against certain citizens solely on the basis of where they live. What this bill is not about is voluntary assisted dying. The bill will not legalise voluntary assisted dying in either the ACT or the NT. Instead, it will finally allow the duly elected members of the ACT and Northern Territory assemblies to debate and consider the issue if that is what their parliaments wish to do.

We all know that any discussion of voluntary assisted dying arouses strong emotions and deeply held views. The debates that I have been involved in and have listened to in the past have usually been passionate and mostly very respectful. But as I said, this bill is not about voluntary assisted dying; it is about restoring the rights of the two parliaments that have been prevented from considering voluntary assisted dying to actually debate the issue, if that is the parliament's wish.

When the ACT and Northern Territory self-government acts were passed by the federal parliament in 1988 and 1978 respectively, both jurisdictions were granted general legislative powers. Both were specifically granted the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of their territory. These legislated rights were left unchallenged and unhindered until the Northern Territory assembly passed the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in 1995. The passage of the NT bill was one of the first of its kind in the world, so I understand why some in the community and this parliament were concerned about the consequences.

As many colleagues may recall, the controversy surrounding the passage of that bill through the NT assembly ultimately led to the former member for Menzies, Mr Kevin Andrews, introducing his private member's bill with the aim of overriding the legislation passed by the Northern Territory's legislative assembly. The passage of Mr Andrews' private member's bill also specifically removed the right of the ACT parliament to pass legislation that allowed for voluntary assisted dying. One of arguments used at the time in favour of the Andrews bill was that the territories should not be allowed to move before any of the state legislators. In other words, the territories weren't allowed to lead but they may—may—be allowed to follow; except, thanks to the Andrews bill, the territories aren't even allowed to follow.

Between the time of the passage of the Andrews bill in 1997 and the introduction of the legislation we are considering today, every state part parliament has passed legislation relating to voluntary assisted dying. The Victorian parliament passed legislation in 2017 followed by Western Australian parliament in 2019 then Queensland, South Australia and Tasmanian parliaments in 2021, and the New South Wales parliament earlier this year. All of these sovereign state parliaments have passed legislation that will allow their citizens to access voluntary assisted dying in strictly controlled circumstances, yet the citizens of the ACT and NT are prevented from debating these issues, let alone passing similar legislation, by an act of the federal parliament.

The passage of these various pieces of legislation stands in stark contrast to the specific prohibition of the ACT and NT parliament's ability to follow suit. So it is time for our parliament to restore the equality among the state and territory parliaments. To persist with the situation where state parliaments have more rates than territory parliaments is unjust and unfair. If the current situation is to persist, it will mean that citizens who live a short drive from this building, over the border in New South Wales, will continue to have more rights than those who live in the ACT. To continue to hold back the two territory parliaments is to hold back two jurisdictions from debating the very same laws that have been passed in every other state.

It is time for our parliament to restore the full rights of the NT and ACT parliaments to legislate for the peace, order and good governance of their territories in all respect. Not to do so is to say that the representatives and electors in the states should continue to have more rights than those in the territories. To continue to prevent two representative and duly elected bodies from discussing an issue that their respective communities want debated and addressed is fundamentally undemocratic.

The passage of the bill before us today would see the Northern Territory and the ACT fully reinstated as equal partners in our Commonwealth. Fundamentally, the Andrews bill, I believe, was wrong in 1997, and for it to stay in place in 2022 would send a clear message to the people of the ACT and the NT that this parliament does not see them as equals.

In drawing my remarks to a close, I will take this opportunity to place on the record my respect for and thanks to my colleagues from the two territories for their pursuit of equality for their parliaments and citizens. In particular, I'd like to congratulate Alicia Payne MP and Luke Gosling MP, both in the other place, for advocating so powerfully for the restoration of territory rights and for bringing forward this legislation. To my Senate colleague Malarndirri McCarthy I say: your advocacy for the rights of Northern Territorians is legendary, and I am pleased to be here today to support you in that quest. And, of course, I congratulate Senator Katy Gallagher for her outstanding work and advocacy on behalf of Canberrans.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of previous members and senators who have attempted to resolve this issue. I hope that this bill will succeed where others have not. I commend the bill to the Senate.