Page 2918 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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I can pre-empt the argument of the Canberra Liberals who have already stated their view, via Mr Hanson, in the media. Mr Hanson said that we are allowing the euthanasia debate to get in the way of focusing on the current issues affecting Canberrans’ daily lives.
Well, actually the euthanasia debate—questions about life and death and people’s health and dignity—is an issue that impacts on Canberrans’ daily lives in a very profound and meaningful way. You only need to listen to Canberrans talk about the issue. It is frequently raised at health and aged forums. I am sure members have seen the surveys showing 75 to 80 per cent of Australians are in favour of allowing euthanasia.
Mr Hanson also said that the opposition does not believe such a complex social issue should be driven by the Legislative Assembly, and therefore does not support any change to current legislation that restricts the territories from implementing euthanasia. He then argued passionately that our Assembly, the Assembly that he is elected to, should be disempowered and frankly is not very good. He said, “We are a very small jurisdiction, we are not a state, we have the smallest parliament in Australia, we do not have an upper house, there is no governor or administrator and far fewer checks and balances.” I did not realise that we had such self-loathing members here in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
I do challenge Mr Hanson and his colleagues to revise that view. It essentially says to the people of the ACT, the people who elected us to this place, that we do not want to be able to make laws on an issue that is of deep importance to them, that we are not good enough and that the Assembly is not worthy or is not capable. In my view, this neglects a duty that we have to represent our constituents, and it is not a view that I can share.
A corollary to the argument, that we are an incompetent Assembly, is the suggestion that, if people in the ACT want there to be euthanasia laws, they should rely on the federal parliament to nationally legislate on the issue. Not only is this inappropriate for all the reasons I have already stated, but there is also uncertainty as to whether the commonwealth even has the power to do this. Section 51 of the commonwealth constitution does not reserve any power to the commonwealth to make laws in relation to health.
So where will this leave ACT residents? It means that potentially there is no opportunity for a euthanasia scheme to be legislated for the ACT, either by the ACT government or the federal government. Other states could legislate this, but not the ACT. An ACT resident would have nothing, no recourse, and no-one they can elect to represent them on this most important of issues. There is a clear discrimination against ACT residents. If this Assembly has the interest and the compassion then we will try to do something about it.
To conclude, I ask members of the Assembly to agree with this motion and request, as a whole and united Assembly, that the federal government repeal the limitation on our law-making powers. It does not mean that you are supporting euthanasia. It means only that you agree that we should be able to follow a democratic process on the issue
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