Ex-Chief Marshall Perron to back assisted deaths

FORMER Territory Chief Minister Marshall Perron will address the National Press Club in Canberra about voluntary euthanasia legislation

Euthanasia Advocate Marshall Perron at his home in Buderim. Photo Lachie Millard

AS the push to give the ACT and NT the power to legalise voluntary euthanasia takes place in the Senate next week, the man who made the Territory Australia’s first jurisdiction to practise it, will address the issue on the national stage.

Former Territory Chief Minister Marshall Perron will address the National Press Club in Canberra tomorrow.

Not surprisingly the topic will be ‘Restoring Territory Rights for Dying with Dignity’.

The address comes as senior government sources said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would consider blocking its entry into the house to avoid a conscience vote that would divide his government.

Debate on voluntary euthanasia in the Senate is slated to begin when Parliament ­resumes on August 13.

The Government’s leadership group is aware of strong feelings against euthanasia in the party room.

Chief Minister Marshall Perron leaves a media doorstop after the Assembly passes the Euthanasia Bill on May 25, 1995. Pic Peter Gandolfi

Senator David Leyonhjelm told The Australian Mr Turnbull promised he would allow a vote in the house — if the bill passed the Senate — in return for the crossbencher’s crucial support on the restoration of the Aus­tralian Building and Construction Commission.

“They may not want to bring on the debate in the house, but the cost of not doing so would mean that they would break a very clear undertaking, a very clear deal with me, which was negotiated in exchange for my vote on the ABCC,” he said.

“Now if they think that they can just walk away from deals then obviously the rest of the crossbench will also take that into account. It will totally compromise the ability of people like Mathias Cormann to deal with the crossbench on issues such as company tax.”

A keen advocate of individual rights, Chief Minister Perron created world history when his private member’s voluntary euthanasia bill, The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, passed through the Territory Parliament in May 1995.

Although the legislation was subsequently overturned by the federal Parliament, four terminally ill Australians chose to end their suffering using the provisions in the Act while it was in force.

Mr Perron remains active in the voluntary euthanasia movement and his speech at the National Press Club will turn up the heat on federal Lower House MPs to support the new push to restore the Territory’s right to pass voluntary euthanasia laws.