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Speaker 1: Now there has been a renewed push for the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory government to get cracking on voluntary assisted dying laws

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, which we know we haven't had

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Speaker 1: for more than twenty seven years. Now. I didn't get

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Speaker 1: the time to ask the Chief Minister about this this morning,

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Speaker 1: but we most certainly will now. We also know we

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Speaker 1: recently caught up with the Council of the Aging here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory KOTA, who was urging the government

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Speaker 1: to reenact old laws with a few tweaks while it

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Speaker 1: continues to work on a new framework after extensive consultation

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Speaker 1: and the completion of a report by a Voluntary assisted

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Speaker 1: Dying Advisory Committee. Now, the Member for Johnson, Justine Davis,

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Speaker 1: has also been working on a motion paper for Parliament,

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Speaker 1: but there have been some delays that will mean that

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Speaker 1: it's not going to be introduced until the end of

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Speaker 1: May sittings. Now the Member, the Independent Member for Johnson

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line right now. Good morning to you, Justine.

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Speaker 2: Hey kay, how are you going?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really good? Thank you so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. Now, talk us through where things are at

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Speaker 1: with your voluntary assisted dying motion. I know you've been

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Speaker 1: working on this quite extensively behind the scenes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So, as people may know, last year in Parliament,

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Speaker 2: the Member for Nightcliff tabled that report that you made

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Speaker 2: reference to, because that hadn't been tabled in Parliament before,

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Speaker 2: and I gave notice of emotion to implement the recommendations

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Speaker 2: of that report, one of which was to develop the

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Speaker 2: legislation bring back the right to die the right sorry,

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Speaker 2: the voluntary voluntary sist of dying here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: The way it works is that that goes on a

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Speaker 2: list and we moved through it over time. So it

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Speaker 2: was due to come up in this sitting of Parliament.

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Speaker 2: But I've been talking to fellow mlass across Parliament to

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Speaker 2: see whether there might be a more effective way of

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Speaker 2: us working on this without mejas bringing it up as

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Speaker 2: an independent Obviously, if the Government doesn't support it, I

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Speaker 2: would need to bring it as a private members bill.

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Speaker 2: I know you made reference to. I think Marshall Peren

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Speaker 2: proposing a way that we could go forward that might

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Speaker 2: be quite simple. I think they are really complex issues though,

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Speaker 2: and I think we need to make sure we do

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Speaker 2: it right, and I want to make sure that when

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Speaker 2: we do talk about this in Parliament and do something,

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Speaker 2: we do it and make sure something's going to happen

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Speaker 2: from it. It's not just a whole lot of talk.

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Speaker 2: So I need a little bit more time for that

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Speaker 2: discussion before we bring it to Parliament.

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Speaker 1: And so how in how do you envisage this is

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Speaker 1: going to be brought to parliament? Justin because I think

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Speaker 1: it's fair enough. You know, for the sake of one

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Speaker 1: month you're better off or two months you're better off

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Speaker 1: holding off and getting it right and have more, you know,

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Speaker 1: a better chance of it being successful.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And that's what Parliament should be, shouldn't It

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Speaker 2: should be our elected represented working together for what we

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Speaker 2: know in this case vast majority of the community wants

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Speaker 2: to make it happen in a way that's going to

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Speaker 2: meet their needs. So I think that if we can

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Speaker 2: do that, that will be great. I think so people

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Speaker 2: know the process. That motion is not the legislation. We

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Speaker 2: will then need to go through the process of developing

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Speaker 2: the law and then that will come to Parliament as

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Speaker 2: a bill and it will be voted on at that point,

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Speaker 2: and that will take some time. That won't be really fast.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think we're in a really good position

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Speaker 2: here now in the Northern Territory. As we know, we

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Speaker 2: were the first place in Australia to have these laws.

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Speaker 2: We're now the only place that doesn't. But one of

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Speaker 2: the things that means is that we can learn from

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Speaker 2: what everyone else has done across Australia. We can learn

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Speaker 2: from the work that's been done here through that whole

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Speaker 2: consultation process, and we can then develop legislation based on

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Speaker 2: what's best across Australia and what's going to be right

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Speaker 2: for us here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: So Justine, where is it from your perspective in terms

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Speaker 1: of the work that you're now having to do behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes. So I know that you are, as you've said,

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Speaker 1: you are having to speak you know to people on

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Speaker 1: right around the Parliament here in the Northern Territory. I

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Speaker 1: was going to say in government, but it's also government

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Speaker 1: opposition everybody. You're going to need to really speak to

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Speaker 1: everybody about this, aren't you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, that's right, and so that so that's part

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Speaker 2: of the work. Also talking to you talked about CODA,

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Speaker 2: so they're talking to you know, with CODA and other

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Speaker 2: organizations that have been advocating around this issue for a

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Speaker 2: long time to make sure that all their wisdom and

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Speaker 2: working this is incorporated in whatever we do from here.

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Speaker 2: In terms of the process of developing the lawyers, I

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Speaker 2: said the as an independent, I don't have any staff

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Speaker 2: to help me with developing legislation or advising me or

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Speaker 2: doing any of that work. There are drafters, government drafters

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Speaker 2: that can assist with that, but with a bill of

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Speaker 2: this magnitude, they would only they said, they'd only be

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Speaker 2: able to do that if it was directed by government,

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Speaker 2: so they would not be able to assist, they advised me,

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Speaker 2: they wouldn't be able to assist me to develop that

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Speaker 2: as a private members bill, So it would be looking

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Speaker 2: at what other options there would be for us to

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Speaker 2: be able to do that work in a in a

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Speaker 2: robust way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and so those options are really what you

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Speaker 1: are looking at now, and how you can push this

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Speaker 1: forward without having, you know, without having those staff to

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Speaker 1: be able to help you do it exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So yeah, and look, I think that you know,

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Speaker 2: all of us are elected to do what the people

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Speaker 2: that elected us think is important. So my hope is

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Speaker 2: that the people who are there in Parliament, my fellow,

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Speaker 2: you know, representative will want to support this happening because

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Speaker 2: it's so clear that it's so important to people across

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Speaker 2: the territory. And I also, I don't say no, it's

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Speaker 2: not it's not a simple matter. There people have very

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Speaker 2: strong views about this. There are people in my elector

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Speaker 2: who I've spent a lot of time We're talking through

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Speaker 2: their concerns about faith based concerns and other concerns about this.

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Speaker 2: And I think we can do this work in a

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Speaker 2: way that can address concerned and be you know, the

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Speaker 2: appropriate kind of law for the whole Northern Territory if

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Speaker 2: we do it properly.

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Speaker 1: Justine, it does sound like there's plenty of work to

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Speaker 1: happen behind the scenes. Please continue to keep us up

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Speaker 1: to date. What's on your agenda for the next couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks of parliamentary settings. It sounds like it's going

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Speaker 1: to be really busy. I mean, the Chief Minister had

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Speaker 1: just said she is that she wants to table the

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Speaker 1: IKAK report relating to the Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy.

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Speaker 1: She's waiting for the advice from the ICAC. I mean,

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Speaker 1: do you think that is something that needs to be tabled.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's lots of work that needs

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Speaker 2: to still be done around Ikak, around that issue, around transparence,

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Speaker 2: and if that's something that you know will help the

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Speaker 2: community feel trust, then it's something that we should definitely

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Speaker 2: look at doing. But it's one of many issues that

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Speaker 2: can be a very big two weeks of Parliament. I

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Speaker 2: think I heard the Chief Minister say that she's going

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Speaker 2: to give us a definition of economic development, which I'm

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Speaker 2: really looking forward to because i'd like to and many

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Speaker 2: of us. You said many people have been asking about that.

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Speaker 2: I'm certainly one of them. I believe tomorrow we're going

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Speaker 2: to be debating the Territory Coordinator Bill, so there's been

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Speaker 2: a lot of discussion about that. I was on the

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Speaker 2: scrutiny committee for that. That was a very long process,

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Speaker 2: many many submissions, ninety five percent of which were against

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Speaker 2: that bill. We had hearings. It'll be interesting to see

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Speaker 2: what the government. We did a report to government and

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Speaker 2: made some recommendations, so it'll be interesting to see what

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Speaker 2: that bill looks like when it comes to the floor

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Speaker 2: tomorrow and whether any of those recommendations have been taken

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Speaker 2: on board. And as the Chief Minister of referenced, I

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Speaker 2: will be certainly moving amendments tomorrow to try and reflect

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Speaker 2: the issues and concerns that people have raised around that

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Speaker 2: bill when we come to debating it.

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Speaker 1: What were some of those issues that arose and some

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Speaker 1: of the things that you know that you think do

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Speaker 1: need to be included.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a wide range of them. So many people

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Speaker 2: feel like this bill is not necessary at all, and

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Speaker 2: it was very interesting as part of the scrutiny committee process.

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Speaker 2: One of the questions that we asked nearly everyone is

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Speaker 2: can you give us a tangible example of how this

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Speaker 2: bill will make a difference, you know, based on something

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Speaker 2: that's actually happened, And no one could answer that question.

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Speaker 2: And so I think there's some real and there was

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Speaker 2: a very interesting comment from one of the agencies. I

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Speaker 2: think the Planning Commissioner said, this is this is solving

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Speaker 2: a problem without actually defining what the problem is. And

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Speaker 2: I think that there's an overall issue about why are

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Speaker 2: we why are we actually putting this bill in place.

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Speaker 2: This bill that overrides twenty three acts that are already

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Speaker 2: there to do a very specific purpose, overrides people who

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Speaker 2: are skilled and trained and expert in areas who to

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Speaker 2: make decisions. Puts pretty much unparallel power into two people,

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister and the Territory Coordinator, to fast tracked decisions.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of concern in the community that those decisions,

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Speaker 2: not just in the community, in many stakeholders, that those

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Speaker 2: decisions will be rushed, will be hasty, will not take

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Speaker 2: into account the long term impacts, will not have all

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Speaker 2: the evidence that we need to make good decisions. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of concerns from particular For example, Local Government

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Speaker 2: Association believe that their act should not be they should

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Speaker 2: be excluded from the Territory Coordinator bill. The Heritage Heritage

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Speaker 2: Act initially was excluded. It's now been included without any

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Speaker 2: input from the Heritage Council when many people were concerned

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Speaker 2: about that. There's a whole raft of issues. If people

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Speaker 2: are interested, the report is online and I'd really encourage

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Speaker 2: people to have a look at it because it's good

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Speaker 2: to know the detail of what this government the person

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Speaker 2: to do and what it might mean for all of us.

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Speaker 1: We are fast running out of time, Justine, But what day,

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Speaker 1: so is it tomorrow that you are expecting that to

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Speaker 1: all happen.

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Speaker 2: I believe so and I just said the Chief means

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Speaker 2: to say we might be there till midnight, so it

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Speaker 2: might be a very long day. Big so anyone who's interested.

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Speaker 2: Just like I always say this, but Parliament House is

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Speaker 2: the people's House. It's there for all of us. Everyone

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Speaker 2: is welcome there. If you want to see how laws

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Speaker 2: made in the Northern Territory, come in and check it out.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Justine Davis, the Independent Member for Johnson. Great

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Speaker 1: to speak with you this morning. I appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, Katie, have a great with you too,