Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is precisely about putting the rights back into the hands of territorians. Sadly, this amendment would do the exact opposite. It would effectively render the bill useless. We sit here tonight debating this piece of legislation which territorians have been asking for for 25 years. For 25 years, the Senate has made territorians suffer, because in 1997 this place did the wrong thing. It did the wrong thing by taking those rights away from territorians. Back then, 25 years ago, Australians knew it was wrong. Opinion poll after opinion poll showed that Australians generally, in whatever state or territory they lived, did not support the bill going through. Then, in the days and weeks after that original bill was put in, it was called the Senate's night of shame. Today, tonight, we have an opportunity to right that wrong.

I want to make a short contribution. I know there have been so many eloquent speeches put on the record on this issue for so long. In my contribution I want to pay tribute specifically to the former leader of the Greens, former senator Bob Brown. He was here in this place 25 years ago arguing against the attack on territorians as this bill went through. It was not just the democracy that was under threat but the rights of people to choose dignity; the rights of people to choose to end suffering, to end pain. In his speech on the second reading, back in 1997, Bob called on his colleagues to think about the unnecessary pain and suffering that this place was inflicting on them. I can't be in this chamber tonight without thinking of how many people in 25 years have suffered because this place did the wrong thing on that night. This is about choice. This is about rights. But ultimately this is about human dignity.

It was called the Senate's night of shame for a reason. People were outraged. They were insulted. They were offended. They were hurt. They felt as though their parliamentarians had let them down.

We may all have our own opinions—and we do, deeply held—of what we would do if we were faced with that choice. But Australians by and large have always accepted that it is a personal choice and that just because we are a member of the parliament does not give us a God-given right to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on somebody else. I know there are a number of important people in the gallery here, and I acknowledge Andrew Denton and Andrew Barr. But tonight I want to specifically acknowledge the long-held fight of former Senator Bob Brown. Year after year after year, since 1997, he stood in this very place asking for us to right the wrong that was done 25 years ago, and it's time that we did.