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Speaker 1: Now, last week the Northern Territory Attorney General announced that

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Speaker 1: she'd written to doctor Tanzil Raman, the Member for Fong Limb,

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Speaker 1: in his capacity as the chair of the Legal and

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Speaker 1: Constitutional Affairs Committee, requesting the Committee undertake an inquiry into

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Speaker 1: the voluntary assisted dying in the Northern Territory final Report

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Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four. But many people contacted this show

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Speaker 1: and said that they felt really this was far too

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Speaker 1: slow and the government were dragging their heels on this

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Speaker 1: important issue. Then yesterday we learned the Leader of the

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Speaker 1: Opposition had initiated the process of drafting a private member's

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Speaker 1: bill to legislate voluntary assisted dying in the Northern Territory. Now,

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Speaker 1: once drafted, that bill is going to be released for

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Speaker 1: broad community consultation before returning to Parliament for a conscience vote.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio is Sue Shearer. She

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Speaker 1: is indeed the CEO of the Council of the Aging.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Sue.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, how are you?

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Speaker 1: You're really good? Good to see in now, Sue. Firstly,

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Speaker 1: you were also on the independent panel which looked into

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Speaker 1: this last year, won't you yet?

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Speaker 2: We were appointed in June twenty twenty three. The report

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Speaker 2: came out in June twenty twenty four and there was

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Speaker 2: an election, and actually it's quite rude and actually insulting

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Speaker 2: to the people who were on that panel. There were

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Speaker 2: four doctors on that panel, Katie a psychiatrist, and one

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Speaker 2: of the doctors was the manager of the palliative care

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Speaker 2: in Alice Springs, so we had a wide ranging and

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Speaker 2: we had a lawyer, doctor Duncan McConnell. Mister Duncan McConnell

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Speaker 2: also obviously the key O Halleran to totally negate that report,

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Speaker 2: as I said, is rude and insulting to all the

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Speaker 2: hard work we did in also say we didn't consult

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Speaker 2: with indigenous organizations. We actually consulted with fifteen indigenous organizations.

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Speaker 2: So I would suggest that really the current government get

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Speaker 2: their facts correct.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I found this whole thing over the Lane

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Speaker 1: last week really interesting to me. I you know, and

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Speaker 1: you and I have spoken about this on numerous occasions,

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Speaker 1: and I know not everybody that listens to the show

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Speaker 1: agrees with me, but the whole statement voluntary assisted dying.

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Speaker 1: The first word exactly is voluntary. Nobody is asking you

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Speaker 1: to do anything, No nobody is making a decision for you.

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Speaker 1: This is voluntary assisted dying legislation.

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Speaker 2: Choice palliative care is a fantastic choice. But don't we

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Speaker 2: live in a democracy. I can vote for who I

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Speaker 2: want to, I can worship who I want to. Why

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Speaker 2: can't in a democratic society? Why can't I choose the

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Speaker 2: way I would like to exit this world? Tell me

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Speaker 2: why not? Please? Is it okay? As you said, some

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Speaker 2: people have a religious bench and they really don't believe

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Speaker 2: in it. Not a problem. But again, in a democracy,

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Speaker 2: we can have a choice. So where is a democratic

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Speaker 2: right for us to choose? And I would urch this

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Speaker 2: government as well. Please don't play with territorians' lives. If

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Speaker 2: they're diagnosed with the terminal illness and they're suffering in

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Speaker 2: tolerable pain, who are you to say, oh, you have

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Speaker 2: to hang around? Really, that's just to me cruel and inhumane.

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Speaker 1: Well that's exactly right, I mean, sou look on, As

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Speaker 1: I said before, I'm aware not everybody will be of

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Speaker 1: the same view as you and I, and I'm more

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Speaker 1: than happy to take those calls, those messages. I don't,

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Speaker 1: you know, like, I'm more than happy with that. But

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Speaker 1: what in your role with Kota. What are people saying

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Speaker 1: to you about the time that this is taking.

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Speaker 2: Ah, I've got quite a few people who've been diagnosed

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Speaker 2: with the terminal illness and they don't know whether to

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Speaker 2: leave the territory because we are the only one that

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Speaker 2: haven't got it. Let's remember that we were the first.

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Speaker 2: Now we still haven't got it, but the majority of people,

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Speaker 2: So to say that, there's people who a lot of

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Speaker 2: people who won't use it. I've had people come up

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Speaker 2: to me who have said, look, I don't quite believe

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Speaker 2: in it, and I won't use it, but I think

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Speaker 2: people should have a choice, and that's happening obviously more

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Speaker 2: and more. But according to our surveys, and we have

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Speaker 2: like thirty five thousand seniors on our Seniors Car database,

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Speaker 2: eighty five percent would like the choice. So don't dictate

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Speaker 2: to people. Let them have that choice and do it

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Speaker 2: rather urgently. And I'm still, as I said, I'm still

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Speaker 2: flummixed that this report with all the work that went

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Speaker 2: into it, and we weren't sick of fans. We were

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Speaker 2: an independent panel, okay, and we did a lot of

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Speaker 2: work in this and that's sort of been totally negated

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Speaker 2: and gone. Oh you know, our a labor government didn't, well,

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Speaker 2: a labor government did not do this report. Independent panel

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Speaker 2: people did this.

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Speaker 1: Report, highly respected people, higher respective people exactly. So how

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Speaker 1: many people were consulted as part of that report took

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Speaker 1: us through some of those numbers.

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Speaker 2: Well, as I said, fifty indigenous organizations, we had over

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Speaker 2: forty eight consultations throughout.

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Speaker 1: The When you're up and down as Jewish, when you

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Speaker 1: say forty eight consultations, do you meet meeting with groups

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Speaker 1: of people.

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Speaker 2: Groups of people or from a Christian lobby group or

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Speaker 2: throughout And I'll reiterate though that with indigenous organizations, most

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Speaker 2: of them didn't condone it, but they didn't condemn it. Again,

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Speaker 2: it's choice, so to go back. I think one of

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Speaker 2: the politicians said that, oh, you know, they won't go

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Speaker 2: to the hospital, they won't get care. That was said

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety five. Let's move on. They will if

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Speaker 2: we do it properly and hopefully with all the scuttle.

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Speaker 2: But they won't go around saying don't go to hospital

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Speaker 2: to get the death needle like they did in ninety

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Speaker 2: ninety five.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's a ridiculous statement to make, and it

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Speaker 1: actually to me, I think that's actually insulting towards palliative care, nurses, doctors,

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Speaker 1: everybody that works with impalliative care. For anybody to come

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Speaker 1: out and say that, because if anybody has gone through

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Speaker 1: and had a loved one go through palliative care here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, you will know, as I do,

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Speaker 1: as my family does, that they are absolutely phenomenal. They

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Speaker 1: do not do anything in palliative care that you haven't

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Speaker 1: agreed to exact and that you're not happy with. Exactly

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Speaker 1: it's led by patients.

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Speaker 2: And as I said, the manager, doctor Christine Sanderson, was

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Speaker 2: on the VAD panel and she looks after the palliative

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Speaker 2: care and Alice Springs yelp, So I mean as you

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Speaker 2: said that they were just experts in their field. They

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Speaker 2: are exceptionally professional people. And to throw this out or

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Speaker 2: totally disregarded and to do another one with three SEALP

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Speaker 2: members to one independent and another labor person. But let's

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Speaker 2: get back, let's get go back a bit, Katie to win.

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Speaker 2: Everybody is saying the pre government didn't do anything. How

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Speaker 2: could they when it was in the Self Government Act

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Speaker 2: Section fifty one A that we couldn't even discuss it yeah,

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Speaker 2: and we lobbied long and hard and worked with the

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Speaker 2: Member for Solomon who put up a private member's bill

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Speaker 2: that took that particular section out in December two two

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Speaker 2: two and gave us back the right to hopefully do

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Speaker 2: and install. Would have been pretty easy to restore the

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Speaker 2: rights of the terminally ill from nine in ninety five.

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Speaker 2: It's sitting there.

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Speaker 1: So from your perspective, what option do you think is

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Speaker 1: now a better one? The one that the government's putting

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Speaker 1: forward in terms of going to that committee, or what

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Speaker 1: the opposition is putting forward in terms of the conscience vote,

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Speaker 1: Because I know some people have said, you know, the

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Speaker 1: elected representatives are there to express the wishes of their electorate.

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Speaker 1: Their conscience has got no relevance in any vote, so

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Speaker 1: they want the electorate to be able to speak. And

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Speaker 1: also they're saying they support voluntary sister dying. So what

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Speaker 1: do you think is a better option here?

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Speaker 2: To me, the better option for people suffering in tolerable

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Speaker 2: pain at the moment will be to reenact the rights

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Speaker 2: of the terminial, maybe tweak it a bit. And I

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Speaker 2: agree with you about the conscience vote. Really it's not

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Speaker 2: up to you. And that's what when we were looking

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Speaker 2: at restoring our right to discuss euthanasia and putting in

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Speaker 2: the private members bill, And as I said, we wrote

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Speaker 2: to every House of repons senator and we said, this

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Speaker 2: is not about you, this is not about your consciences.

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Speaker 2: Give us back the right to discuss this. And that's

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Speaker 2: the same with this, Gus. Just give Territorians the right

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Speaker 2: to make a choice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, David and Gray's just messaged through. He said, Hey, Katie,

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Speaker 1: I've been a Christian for fifty years. I believe involuntary

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Speaker 1: assisted dying. I think it should be implemented in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Why is it taking so long? Hurry up,

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory government. God doesn't want this tribe to suffer reckons,

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Speaker 1: David Ingray, You know, we get a lot of messages about.

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Speaker 2: It, exactly and well said, and stop blocking it. I

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Speaker 2: can't understand, to be honest, what the blockage is because

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Speaker 2: I have spoken privately to quite a few incumbent CLP

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Speaker 2: parliamentarians and yeah, you know, I don't want to say

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Speaker 2: that they gagged.

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Speaker 1: Well, and look I think that I actually to me

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Speaker 1: and again I could be wrong. I don't profess to

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Speaker 1: be an expert on everything. But I know we're getting

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Speaker 1: a lot of people contact us about this, and I

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Speaker 1: just think to myself, the current Northern Territory government do

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Speaker 1: need to understand that this is something that the people

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Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory want the same rights as other

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Speaker 1: states and territory and territories. So look, I think they

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Speaker 1: need to get stuck into this sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 1: So I mean to anybody there listening this morning who

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Speaker 1: says that the panel from last year wasn't comprehensive enough

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Speaker 1: and more time needs to be spent in communities and consulting,

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Speaker 1: what would you say to them, I say, have.

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Speaker 2: A look read the report. Read the damn report and

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Speaker 2: find out, as I said, fifteen indigenous organizations who provide

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Speaker 2: healthcare and who are on community as I said, we

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Speaker 2: consulted with them. It hazard. I guess maybe a lot

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Speaker 2: of the politicians mightn't have read this report. If they

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Speaker 2: would take the time to read it, they'd realize what

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Speaker 2: a comprehensive report it is. And besides all the consultations

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Speaker 2: people put in submissions, and you're really saying the lawyer

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Speaker 2: and Vicky O'Halleran, who has a somebody of her caliber,

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Speaker 2: and then the other four doctors five to psychiatrists. Are

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Speaker 2: you saying they didn't know what they were talking about

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Speaker 2: when they were actually consulting as we all were, and

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Speaker 2: we did this so we had Christian people and everybody else.

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Speaker 2: But you know, really it's our democratic right to say

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Speaker 2: how we would like to leave this world and how

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Speaker 2: dare you? How dare you? Which you are the present

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Speaker 2: government playing with people's lives. That's what it boils down to.

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Speaker 2: You're procrastinating and really making people linger longer than they

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Speaker 2: would like to and their intolerable pain. Is that what

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Speaker 2: you want?

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Speaker 1: Is that?

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Speaker 2: Really, that's the basis of it. Is that what you

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Speaker 2: like with all this procrastination, And so really I would

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Speaker 2: implore you, I would even beg you let's get cracking please.

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Speaker 1: Sushira, the CEO of the Counsel of the Aging, I

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Speaker 1: always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining

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Speaker 1: me this morning, and no doubt we'll talk to you

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Speaker 1: again very soon.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, Thank you