Commonwealth’s 25-year-old ban on euthanasia laws in ACT and Northern Territory likely to end – ABC News

A global controversy was sparked 27years ago whenthe Northern Territory government passed the world's first right-to-die legislation.

Opponents said the laws would see Darwin become the "suicide capital of the world".

Moral and political outrage escalated the following yearwhen Darwin manBob Dent, who was dying from prostate cancer, ended his life via a voluntary lethal injection.

His death made history and the reaction against it was swift.

Federal Liberal MP Kevin Andrews introduced a bill in the Australian parliament to overturn the Northern Territory's lawsand prevent any territories, including the ACT, from legalising euthanasia.

His bill was passed, enactinga ban that has lasted 25 years.

Today, however, marks the beginning of an attempt to overturn that Commonwealth veto.

Unlike the three previous attempts, this latest effort appears likely to succeed.

Two federal Labor backbenchers Canberra's Alicia Payne and Darwin's Luke Gosling will introduce a bill to free the territories from the Commonwealth's ban on voluntary assisted dying laws.

Their bill will not legalise euthanasia. Rather, it seeks to allow both territories'parliaments to debate euthanasia legislation if they wish to.

Minor parties tried to revoke Mr Andrews's ban three times in 2008, 2010 and 2018 but senators killed off each attempt.

Yet today's political environment has changed.

Every state in Australia now has its own voluntary assisted dyinglaws,after the New South Wales parliament became the last to pass legislation in May.

In other words, the Commonwealth is no longer blocking what might be seen as extreme or fringe legislation;it is preventing territorians from debating laws that every other Australian can already access.

Global opinion has shifted since Mr Dent's death. Dozens of countries have enacted voluntary assisted dying laws this century.

This latest attempt to overturn Mr Andrews's bill is also sponsored by Labor MPs an indication that the Albanese government, unlike its predecessors,is willing to engage the topic.

Nonetheless, none of these factors lock in this attempt's success.MPs and senators will be free to vote in line with their consciences.

Former Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm was the last parliamentarian to try to end the Commonwealth's euthanasia veto.

"We can't decide whether assisted suicide should be permitted in the states, so what gives us the right to decide for those who are not in one of the states?" heasked his Senate colleagues.

His legislation fell two votes short of passing.

When the votes were counted, Liberal senator Eric Abetz, a leading opponent of euthanasia, declared the debate dead. The Senate had settled "this matterfor a generation", he said.

Yet many of the politicians who supported the euthanasia ban that night are no longer in parliament. Mr Abetz is one of them.

Nor is another Liberal leader of the "no" vote: Canberra's own Zed Seselja, who, this year, becamethe first territory senator to lose his seat at an election.

Other prominent conservatives have gone, too, such as Cory Bernardi.

In fact, among the senators still in Parliament who voted that night, there are now two more "aye" votes than there were "no" votes.

This does not mean Mr Andrews's bill is soon to be history.Many of the 40 newsenators are yet to indicate how they will vote.

Some such as independents JacquiLambie and the ACT's David Pocock are firmly in favour of the territories setting their own courses.

Otherswill declare their position this week, although some are known to favour better palliative care over allowing assisted suicide.

The government says it wants the debate to conclude as soon as possible.

But, whatever happens, the matter of territory rights does not end with this bill.

The Commonwealth will still have its constitutional power to override any ACT or NT laws.

That is something that territorians, who make up 2.4 per centof Australians, will have to live with.

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Commonwealth's 25-year-old ban on euthanasia laws in ACT and Northern Territory likely to end - ABC News