Page 995 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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This Assembly historically passed its first ever remonstrance in response to the Senate. I do not think there is any doubt on my views regarding what happened, and we do not need to rehash them now. I now only hope that there is a change of federal government and, with it, a change of approach to this. I want to put on the record my thanks to the Chief Minister for his continued leadership and advocacy in this area within the party at a national level.
Following what happened in the Senate, as a committee we did not resile from the issue of voluntary assisted dying. But the reality is that, as Ms Le Couteur has noted, it put the committee in a very difficult position in terms of the approach we could take regarding voluntary assisted dying. We considered that it would be very difficult to draft genuine recommendations when taking into account the government’s capacity to respond, as it is required to do, within the next three months in the current circumstances. This is all described at length in the report.
We received an extraordinary amount of evidence on this issue, and I and a majority of members of the committee determined that there was consistent evidence, or themes, as to how a voluntary assisted dying scheme should operate if we are ever in a position to legislate for it and if the Assembly were ever minded to do so.
While the comment on that in the report is short, I can assure the community and this place that it is very weighty. How the scheme could and perhaps should operate is backed by an extraordinary amount of evidence which is footnoted. I would draw the attention of anyone reading the report to it, especially those in the future, when I hope we are in a position to agree on doing this and on legislating for it.
This has been incredibly important work. I am proud of Canberra, Canberrans and all of the organisations who have been able to put us in the best possible position we can be in with this evidence for the point in the future when we can legislate, if we decide to do so. I want to draw particular attention to the evidence we heard from the Higgs-Heine family and Ms Katarina Pavkovic, which I think left an indelible impression on the committee. Again, this is highlighted in the report.
It is also appropriate at this point to thank all of the committee members for their work and the collegiate way in which we worked together, most of the time, under the chairing by you, Madam Assistant Speaker Cody, across three parties and at times across quite divergent views.
I really want to put on the record my thanks to Mrs Dunne. I think it will be of great surprise to many that we worked together at all on this issue in particular. We not only worked together but worked very hard together on the final chapter in particular. IÂ personally thank her for her openness to negotiate on perhaps one of the most important reports that this Assembly has ever produced. The result is this report, an agreed report, and an extraordinary report. I commend it to the Assembly.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.05): Madam Assistant Speaker Cody, can I begin by congratulating you on your chairmanship of this committee of inquiry and the production of this very important report. I agree with Ms Cheyne that this is an
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