Gosling backs motion to reverse bill which stops NT from legalising voluntary assisted dying

Federal Labor MP Andrew Leigh has introduced a motion in federal parliament demanding the government repeal a bill that prevents the NT and ACT from legalising euthanasia.

• ACT JOINS TERRITORY PUSH IN FIGHT TO RESTORE EUTHANSIA RIGHTS
• ‘TIME HAS COME’ FOR NT TO VOTE ON VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA MINISTER SAYS

FEDERAL Member for Solomon Luke Gosling has made an impassioned plea in parliament for the Australian government to repeal a bill that prevents the NT and ACT from legalising euthanasia.

Labor MP for the ACT seat of Fenner, Andrew Leigh, brought forward a motion in parliament on Monday after he and Mr Gosling co-sponsored a Bill on the same issue during the last Parliamentary sittings.

Their bill would repeal a bill introduced in 1997 by Victorian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews which prevents the NT and the ACT from making laws about euthanasia.

Mr Andrews is departing parliament after losing preselection in the seat of Menzies.

“We were seeking to restore the democratic rights of citizens in the Territories by removing a constraint on the legislative authority of their elected representatives, which does not exist anywhere else in Australia,” Mr Gosling said in his speech on Monday.

“However, the Government blocked debate on that bill.

“They did the same thing the previous term.”

Mr Gosling said the vast majority of Territorians want the bill overturned.

“For a quarter of a century, we’ve been barred from fully enjoying the same democratic rights as Australians living in the states,” he said.

“It’s ridiculous that we’re still being forced to explain why people living in the ACT and the Northern Territory are worthy of having equal rights to other Australians.”

Mr Leigh told the ABC on Monday that the federal parliament’s view was no longer in line with public opinion on euthanasia. “We’re in a very different world from where we were a quarter of a century ago and it’s time this anachronistic bar was lifted.,” he said.

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