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Speaker 1: And we know that you might recall earlier in the week. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: the final report was indeed released into the development of

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Speaker 1: a framework for voluntary assisted dying in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: The panel made twenty two recommendations after a number of

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Speaker 1: public hearings, meetings with organizations and reviewing written submissions. Now,

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Speaker 1: if re elected, Labor have committed to reviewing the recommendations

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Speaker 1: and move forward with proposed legislation to introduce a voluntary

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Speaker 1: assisted dying scheme, while the COLP says it will heavily

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Speaker 1: scrutinize the feedback from the committee, deeming it a conscience

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Speaker 1: vote for party members. Now joining us on the line

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Speaker 1: to talk through the recommendations is the Independent Expert Advisory

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Speaker 1: Panel co chair, the Honorable Vicky o'haller. And good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Vicky. Let me try that again. Good morning again, Vicki.

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Speaker 2: Good morning again, Katie.

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Speaker 1: You've got to make sure I'm pressing the button to

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Speaker 1: get you on air now, Vicki. Firstly, what consultation will

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Speaker 1: undertaken by the paddel.

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Speaker 2: Katie. We had a dedicated survey line because we were

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Speaker 2: aware that not everybody wanted to make a submission. We

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Speaker 2: went out and engaged with sixty organizations. Some we reached

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Speaker 2: out to, some reached out to us. Our survey responses

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Speaker 2: were around fourteen hundred. We received ninety eight written submissions

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Speaker 2: and three hundred and fifty individuals, and again a lot

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Speaker 2: of those reached out to us to have a couple

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Speaker 2: of tea in their lounge rooms, talk to us about

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Speaker 2: their personal very poignant experiences, or wanted to come in

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Speaker 2: and have a chat as a family group, or wanted

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Speaker 2: us to go out to their their organization and have

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Speaker 2: a chat, or out to their age care facility, or

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Speaker 2: meet with a seniors group. And we were really flexible

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Speaker 2: and just available as as much as was required from territorians.

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Speaker 2: There are also those territorians that didn't want to identify,

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Speaker 2: We didn't want to talk about death or dying. That

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Speaker 2: we had to respect as well.

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Speaker 1: It must have been some pretty difficult conversations because I

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Speaker 1: think on both sides here or there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: shades of gray as well. People are they have very

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Speaker 1: personal stories that I'm assuming that they want to share.

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Speaker 1: It would have been tough some of those conversations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very much, because I think we were all involved

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Speaker 2: as a panel either through our work experience or our

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Speaker 2: own life experiences and wanted this report that was commissioned

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Speaker 2: by the Chief Minister to reflect what we've heard and

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Speaker 2: be informed by the views of territorians.

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Speaker 1: Now talk me through the report recommending obviously implementing voluntary

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Speaker 1: assisted dying legislation consistent with other states and territories. So

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Speaker 1: was there overwhelming support for it?

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Speaker 2: Yes, there was on the whole. I mean, we respect

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Speaker 2: those that were conscientiously objecting to any form of voluntari

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Speaker 2: as sister dying at any time now and into the future.

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Speaker 2: But overall, as we discussed euthanasia of voluntari as sister

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Speaker 2: dying across the territory, there was support.

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Speaker 1: Now tell me what were some of the other key

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Speaker 1: recommendations that have been made in the report.

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Speaker 2: Ok. I think the important thing to discuss today is

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Speaker 2: where we have agreed with other states and territories, and

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Speaker 2: also to point out that, although not in our terms

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Speaker 2: of reference, dementia is a really difficult circumstance for discussion.

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Speaker 2: At every turn that we landed on the fact that

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Speaker 2: people must have decision making capacity, and we did that

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Speaker 2: because it's complex, it's knowing when where I think Soushiras

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Speaker 2: pointed out from the Council of the Aging that you

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Speaker 2: have to consider safeguards. You have to consider safeguards for

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Speaker 2: the patient, safeguards for the staff administering the family, the

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Speaker 2: burden on caregivers. So although not in our terms of reference,

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Speaker 2: we did convey clearly in our report that there was

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Speaker 2: a strong body of opinion that's been expressed during our

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Speaker 2: consultation and engagement that there should in the future be

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Speaker 2: legislation to enable a person to access voluntary assists a

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Speaker 2: dying why they still have capacity, and that could be

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Speaker 2: done in their advanced personal plan or their health directives

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Speaker 2: in preparation for their end of life. And I wanted

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Speaker 2: to say that because dementia consideration is a whole body

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Speaker 2: of new work, and ideally that body of work would

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Speaker 2: be undertaken across all jurisdictions in Australia.

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Speaker 1: I was going to ask that do we know or

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Speaker 1: what are they doing in other states? Now were able

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Speaker 1: to sit in line with those other states, But it

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Speaker 1: sounds like it's a body of work that's happening right

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Speaker 1: across Australia.

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Speaker 2: Yes it is, because it's such a such a challenge.

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Speaker 2: But you know. In the twenty two recommendations we put forward,

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Speaker 2: we focused also on residency and probably stand alone in

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Speaker 2: that space, although Western Australia and Queensland are having a

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Speaker 2: look at what they have in place where they have

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Speaker 2: restrictions around residency. We took into consideration the transiency that

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Speaker 2: exists here in the Northern Territory and a number of

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Speaker 2: stories that we've been told. So we thought that a

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Speaker 2: person should have resided in Australia for a couple of

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Speaker 2: years and in the territory for twelve months, but exception

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Speaker 2: should apply to that for cross border communities, with people

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Speaker 2: who have personal connections here in the NTU or for

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Speaker 2: family or cultural reasons. We spoke to a lot of

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Speaker 2: people that have resided here all their life but move

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Speaker 2: into State to be with family, but then want to

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Speaker 2: if they had access to voluntarist if a dying to

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Speaker 2: die at home here in the Northern Territory, or people

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Speaker 2: who are in another situation have lived for a long

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Speaker 2: time into State but they were born here and want

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Speaker 2: to come home, or this is where their children are

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Speaker 2: and this is where they want to spend the last

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Speaker 2: part of their lives. So we thought there needed to

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Speaker 2: be flexibility there.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like it's been really complex and a lot

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Speaker 1: of work to get to this point, and obviously that

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Speaker 1: report handed over before we kicked into caretaker mode.

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Speaker 2: What are the next what are the next steps? From

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Speaker 2: your perspective, look from our perspective as a panel, our

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Speaker 2: work has concluded. The report is with the Chief Minister now,

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Speaker 2: but our final recommendation was that voluntary assisted dying services

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Speaker 2: should be ready for operational implementation within eighteen months of

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Speaker 2: the legislation being enacted. Now, whether the legisl will be

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Speaker 2: an actor is really a matter for the Government of

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Speaker 2: the day, although as you mentioned, Katie, we have been

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Speaker 2: advised that it will come down to a conscience vote.

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Speaker 1: Now in terms of because I know there will be

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Speaker 1: some people listening this morning thinking are there going to

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Speaker 1: be safeguards in place? And I'm assuming that this was

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Speaker 1: also part of the large body of work that was completed.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, we can't emphasize enough the importance of safeguards, safeguards

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Speaker 2: to everybody involved, for the patient, the person making decisions

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Speaker 2: about their end of life, for the administering doctor should

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Speaker 2: that be the case, for the family, for the caregivers,

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Speaker 2: and we put a lot of work into that into

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Speaker 2: our report, and hence that's why we have put the

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Speaker 2: time frame as twelve months. At this stage, we wanted

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Speaker 2: to do everything that we could, I suppose, not only

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Speaker 2: to put into the report what we've but to give

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Speaker 2: our recommendations and the legistrate slation every chance to be passed. Well.

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Speaker 1: Independent Expert Advisory Panel co chair the Honorable Vicki o'haleran,

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Speaker 1: really good to speak to you this morning. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time and for the work that you've done.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, thank you