KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Laws blocking the Territories from legislating voluntary euthanasia have been repealed after more than two decades of being in place. The Restoring Territory Rights Bill passed Parliament on Thursday night, overturning legislation put forward by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews in 1997 that precluded the territories from being able to debate and pass voluntary assisted dying laws. So despite all states having passed voluntary assisted dying laws since that time, the restrictions on territory have remained. And we know that Luke Gosling co-sponsored the Restoring the Territory Rights Bill. He's going to be joining us on the show in just a couple of moments to really tell us how things went overnight. I know he's not in the Senate. We are going to be speaking to Senator for the Northern Territory, Jacinta Price, and finding out how she voted in the end. But joining me on the line right now is indeed the co-sponsor for the Restoring the Territory Rights Bill, Luke Gosling. Good morning to you, Luke.
LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning, Katie. How are you?
WOOLF: Really well, mate. And a historic day for the Northern Territory, isn't it?
GOSLING: Yeah, it really is. I mean, it's been a quarter of a century since our laws were overturned by the Commonwealth and repealing the Andrews bill last night in the Senate, I think was saying to the whole country that Territorians deserve the same democratic rights as everyone else.
WOOLF: Luke, you and I have spoken about this on a lot of occasions. It feels as though we've spoken about this bill and about voluntary assisted dying laws on so many occasions over the years that I sort of wondered whether the day would ever arrive. Did you feel the same?
GOSLING: Yeah. You know, I actually went over into the Senate with Marion Scrymgour to listen to the debate. And, you know, part of us was going, “Are you kidding me? You know, people are still trying to oppose this?” and really trying to advance the agenda that we weren't capable of investigating an issue, looking at what else is done elsewhere, consulting with our communities. And I thought NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy had a really powerful speech there where she actually drew on some of the speeches from 25 years ago when it was debated in the Marshall Perron CLP Government, and from both sides of the argument.
And I think there was a bit of an eye opener for people as well. They were both First Nations MLAs, and I think that sort of opens people's eyes a little bit to “hey, you know, we're quite capable of having this conversation for ourselves, thanks. Get out of the way and let us let us resume business and however it may turn out.”
WOOLF: And I understand – and we're due to catch up with him this morning as well. But I understand that former CLP Chief Minister Marshall Perron was there last night in the gallery watching as this unfolded, and he was indeed the chief minister at the time when these laws were initially put in place.
GOSLING: Yeah, he was, Katie. I got to know him over the last couple of years. You'll remember when I first tried to get a bill through unsuccessfully under the previous Coalition federal government. So since then, I've been sort of talking with him along the way. And he was up there and as a few people spoke against this bill, he sort of dropped his head a couple of times, and it just seemed like, “oh my God, we're still in this position.” But we were all hopeful. We were confident that we would get the numbers. And I think he would have slept well last night.
WOOLF: Now, I know that the ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, revealed the ACT is going to look to legislate voluntary assisted dying within as soon as 12 months. He said: “we'll have a thorough and engaged process and it will be a conscience vote. I think it will bring out the best in the ACT Parliament” is what he said. We know that here in the Northern Territory, the Attorney-General Chansey Paech was on the week that was with us this morning and confirmed that they're not going to rush to push this forward. It's not going to happen before the next Northern Territory election because they do want to make sure that there's extensive consultation. What do you think should happen here in the Territory?
GOSLING: Yeah, we absolutely need extensive consultation and obviously the timing of any drafting of legislation once there's been sufficient consultation is a matter for the NT Government. And I think there'll be a balancing of community expectations of the debate. I just really hope the debate is respectful that people get to have their say because, after all, these are really deeply personal issues when it comes to matters at the end of life. And as you and I have spoken about a fair bit in the past, I've got my reservations and I'll be looking to see that particularly the vulnerable people in our community are protected. And there was some in the federal Parliament even last night still trying to make those decisions for us. But it's clear that we've been successful after 25 years, we've regained the right of the Territory to make our own decisions and that's a great thing. And another thing we were able to do, of course, is there was an argument put forward last night that the ACT is very different to the NT in terms of its size, and in isolated remote communities. But WA have legislated, they are actually bigger in landmass than the NT and they've got remote indigenous communities as well. As has Queensland. So, you know, unlike Marshall Perron’s government 25 years ago, we're not breaking new ground here. There's established legislation. We can say we want world's best practice that protects our vulnerable people, but makes a decision that reflects what the people of the Northern Territory want, and that's our job. We've done our bit down here to enable the Legislative Assembly to have its vote in due course. So it's over to the NT Government.
WOOLF: Well, Luke Gosling, the Member for Solomon, we appreciate your time and I appreciate you having a chat with me today.
GOSLING: Thanks, Katie.
