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The ACT and Northern Territory are a step closer to being able to legislate for voluntary assisted dying after a vote in the Senate today.
Key points:
- Senators participated in a preliminary vote on the bill today, with 41 in support and 25 against
- A federal veto on territory rights was imposed 25 years ago after the Northern Territory legalised euthanasia
- A final vote is expected to be held next Thursday
Senators this morning continued to debate a bill that would remove a federal veto on the territories being able to legislate on certain issues, including euthanasia.
Those present participated in a preliminary vote on the bill ahead of a final vote next week, with 41 in support and 25 against.
ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher said it was a "historic moment" after decades of campaigning on the issue.
"I think it gives the first indication, really, of how everybody is going to vote," she said.
"It's a conscience vote for everybody in the chamber and the second reading vote passed 41 to 25, which is just amazing."
The bill is now at the committee stage before the third and final reading next week.
Debate is expected to continue on Thursday, December 1 and Senator Gallagher said she expected the result to come through by the next morning at the latest.
'Long journey' drawing to a close
The bill, should it be passed, would overturn a veto that was imposed 25 years ago, after the Northern Territory introduced the world's first right-to-die legislation.
Moral and political outrage escalated the following year when Darwin man Bob Dent, who was dying from prostate cancer, ended his life via a voluntary lethal injection.
Federal Liberal MP Kevin Andrews then introduced a bill in the Australian parliament to overturn the Northern Territory's laws and prevent any territories, including the ACT, from legalising euthanasia.
His bill was passed, enacting a ban that has lasted to this day.
Senator Gallagher said it had been a "long journey" to get to this point.
"I think I wrote my first letter when I was chief minister to a former government 10 or 11 years ago, asking for a process to overturn this bill," she said.
Opponents of the bill remain, with Liberal senator Sarah Henderson today calling it "deeply offensive".
"This bill... is a statement that we in Australia are prepared to kill our most vulnerable," she told the Senate chamber.
"It represents state-sanctioned killing."
But Senator Gallagher argued the law would not allow for euthanasia, but rather permit the territories to vote on it.
All Australian states have already passed laws allowing voluntary assisted dying — the last being New South Wales, earlier this year.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he and ACT Human Rights Minister Tara Cheyne planned to be in the Senate chamber on Thursday to witness the vote.
"For many years now, along with our ACT and NT federal colleagues, we have actively campaigned to resolve an injustice that for 25 years has seen territory citizens denied their democratic rights on the basis of where they live," Ms Cheyne said.
"On behalf of the ACT government and our citizens, we welcome the resounding vote today, and acknowledge that we are now closer than ever before to winning the hard-fought battle to restore our territory rights."