Voluntary Assisted Dying panel given nine months to develop expert report

A nine-member expert panel has been given nine months to decide how Voluntary Assisted Dying could work in the Territory.

Twenty-seven years ago the Northern Territory made history by becoming the first place in the world to allow legal voluntary euthanasia.

Now an expert panel has been tasked with a nine-month investigation to see how Voluntary Assisted Dying can work once again.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles revealed the nine-member advisory panel who will shape the future legislation on voluntary assisted dying reforms in the Territory.

Ms Fyles appointed former NT Administrator Vicki O’Halloran and eminent barrister Duncan McConnel SC as the co-chairs of the expert panel.

She confirmed the co-chairs would be joined by Christine Sanderson, Devaki Monani, Geetanjali Lamba, Kane Vellar, Susan Shearer, Ursula Raymond and Wendy Morton.

Ms Fyles appointed former NT Administrator Vicki O’Halloran as one of the two co-chairs of the expert panel. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Dr Sanderson is a Sydney-based staff specialist in palliative aged and chronic care, while Dr Monani is a social work lecturer and Faculty of Health vice-chancellor at Charles Darwin University.

They are joined by World Health Organisation health systems researcher Dr Lamba, and Dr Kane Vellar, who was the first Indigenous medicine graduate from Flinders University.

NT Legal Aid Commission chair Duncan McConnel was appointed to the Voluntary Assisted Dying expert panel. Picture: Floss Adams.

Council on the Ageing NT chief executive Sue Shearer, former NT Deputy Treaty Commissioner and Larrakia woman Ursula Raymond and Community Housing registrar Wendy Morton also join the expert panel.

Ms Fyles said the independent panel would develop a framework for the proper safety, ethics, and appropriate safeguards to protect individuals and practitioners.

NT Deputy Treaty Commissioner and Larrakia woman Ursula Raymond joined the Voluntary Assisted Dying panel. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“Territorians deserve to have a say on whether or not they want these laws in the Territory, and if so, how they want it to work,” she said.

Ms Fyles said the panel would hold town hall meetings in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Jabiru, Nhulunbuy, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and the regions in October.

The panel will also take submissions from online survey, written submissions and meetings with community groups and stakeholders.

Former NTCOSS executive director and current Community Housing registrar Wendy Morton joined the Voluntary Assisted Dying panel.

“The expert panel will ensure all voices are heard from all regions of the Territory,” she said.

The independent panel was given nine months to prepare a report reflecting the views of the community to the Chief Minister, by July 2024.

The NT and the Australian Capital Territory are the last jurisdictions in Australia to have a policy on voluntary assisted dying, due to a Commonwealth intervention in 1997.

After the NT passed world-first euthanasia laws the federal government stepped in to ban the parliament from even discussing the policy.

That was only overturned in December last year, after the Restoring Territory Rights Act passed by a conscience vote.

Originally published as Voluntary Assisted Dying panel given nine months to develop expert report