Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I too haven't spoken on this bill but I can't support this amendment and I, along with my colleagues, will not be voting for it.

In 2019 my mother was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. At that time in Queensland she did not have access to VAD. But she told me that she would have liked to have known that she at least had the choice. And I think it would have given her a lot of comfort to know that, as her body degenerated and failed her, that was going to be an option for her.

If this amendment passes then people in the Territory who have a disease like motor neurone disease will not have that choice, because that would clearly fall within the category of a disability. It is an insidious disease. You can't walk, you lose your ability to speak, you lose all of your ability to control your bodily functions and eventually you suffocate from that disease. It is a horrible way to die. My mother was lucky for someone who had that disease. She cardiac arrested before she lost her ability to speak and breathe. Please let's not take away the right from people in the territory to have their government debate and decide whether or not they should have the right to choose and what safeguards need to be included with it. Thank you.