Statehood may be a necessity, writes Sam McMahon

The euthanasia debate should trigger discussion about whether Statehood is something worth considering again, writes NT CLP Senator Sam McMahon.

THOSE in Canberra who want Territorians to remain second-class citizens exposed the shallowness of their opposition this week using a vote against statehood in 1998 as the reason why the Andrew’s amendments should not be overturned.

My Coalition colleague Eric Abetz said this week because we voted against Statehood we did not have, or by his reasoning, ever should have the right to debate or make decisions – specifically around euthanasia.

I constantly have thrown back at me comments such as: “Why don’t you just become a state, then you can make your own laws and decide your own destiny”. It is often said in a sarcastic, paternalistic tone, as if to imply the Territory needs to recognise its place and not aspire to illusions of grandeur that the states have.

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Senator Abetz’s comments are one of those moments when you get a little embarrassed to be part of a conservative philosophy which champions democracy and rails against those who take rights away. It would have been far better for him to be honest that he does not support euthanasia because of his religious views. I can live with that because that is his choice but as a conservative, I want choice and I embrace the free market.

Senator Sam McMahon, Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

What this really does, however, is reinforce my resolve for my private Senator’s Bill “Ensuring Territory Rights” to be debated in Parliament at the next available opportunity and for the debate around statehood for the Territory to be started again with the aim being a referendum.

The question does not need to be complex. It needs to be simple.

Do you wish for the Northern Territory to be a State?

There are many reasons why the Statehood question failed last time around. It became a party-political debate where those who did not like the then chief minister Shane Stone made it about him. They did not want “Stonehood”.

There will be those who want to make it about the current Chief Minister. Would Michael Gunner even be the Chief Minister today if it weren’t for the pandemic? Certainly his Federal Labor colleagues in Canberra do not believe so.

Sam McMahon’s colleague Eric Abetz has staunchly opposed giving the NT the right to make its own decisions around voluntary euthanasia. Picture: Chris Kidd

But the statehood debate is not about the here and the now. The statehood debate is about the future and the natural next step development of the Territory.

There has never been a time like the present to make the case again for statehood. The Federal Government recognises the importance of the Northern Territory for Australia’s future like never before. We are strategically placed as the gateway to the North both for defence force posturing and as an export hub to the rest of the world.

We have vastly untapped mineral and energy resources. With our vast tracts of agricultural land and high annual rainfall in the North we can feed our nation as well as many others.

The Northern Territory has matured enough in the last 25 years to call itself a state.

Sam McMahon is an NT Senator