Page 4789 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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that fewer than a hundred people a year in Victoria will take advantage of this legislation. I would also point out to those people who feel that we do not need to do something about it if Victoria and New South Wales are that the proposed legislation in both states includes provisions that the person must be ordinarily resident in Victoria and New South Wales, as applicable.
While this legislation, if passed, will provide valuable information as to how this legislation could work in practice—and I am sure it will be of considerable help to people in those communities—it is not something that will be of any practicable help to the people of the ACT.
The Greens and I believe that people should have the right to relieve their suffering at the end of their lives. Voluntary assisted dying is about giving people choice and control when they are faced with circumstances where so much control is taken away from them. This is why we support the creation of a compassionate, safe and workable scheme for voluntary assisted dying in the ACT.
Of course, if this issue were to be considered in the ACT it would involve very extensive community consultation, input from experts and no doubt vigorous debate in the Assembly—all the parliamentary and community engagement mechanisms which are appropriate in contemplating such an important change. An extensive process, similar to that seen in Victoria, would be needed to ensure that all voices are heard and that people are able to consider all aspects of any proposed scheme.
As Ms Cheyne’s motion notes, support for a compassionate, safe and workable scheme for voluntary assisted dying has been consistently shown to sit between 70 and 85 per cent of the Australian community. I was pleased to attend, along with Ms Cheyne, a recent forum by Dying with Dignity ACT and see firsthand the frustration that exists within our community that a decision on this important issue is just out of our hands.
Are we truly to believe that members of the ACT community are somehow less able to have this conversation and consider this issue than our counterparts in Victoria and New South Wales? We are a modern and robust society that can ensure any voluntary assisted dying scheme is managed with the utmost, serious compassion and respect and with strong safeguards. Many places around the world have developed mature, workable schemes for voluntary euthanasia and these would help guide the development of any such scheme in the ACT.
The ACT government administers health, education, prisons, courts, criminal laws— all the regular state functions—in addition to administering local issues. Our grant of power allows us to make laws for the peace, order and good government of ACT residents. The one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb, the one that has been arbitrarily inserted in the self-government act, is the Andrews act, an unprincipled and ad hoc anomaly which diminishes the ACT’s autonomy as a jurisdiction. Where does this leave the ACT and in particular where does this leave people in the ACT who may be dying or suffering and who, with their family, are considering their available end-of-life choices?
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