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Speaker 1: An issue that a lot of Territorians feel really very

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Speaker 1: passionately about. We know that some progress has been made

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Speaker 1: when it comes to voluntary assisted dying in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: The Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is calling for submissions

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Speaker 1: to its inquiry and as I understand it, they've also

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Speaker 1: engaged in further meetings and consultation. Now joining me in

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Speaker 1: the studio is the lc AC chair, that is, the

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Speaker 1: Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Chair, Tanseil Rahman. Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Tansel.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good to have you in this studio now, Tansel.

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Speaker 1: Submissions are currently being called for and have been for

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Speaker 1: the last week or so. Do you know if you've

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Speaker 1: received many at this stage.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Katie, they're coming in thick and fast. Territorians have

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Speaker 2: wanted to have a say on this issue and have

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Speaker 2: done so in the past and exercising the opportunity to

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Speaker 2: do so again. So we're getting lots of written submptions

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Speaker 2: coming in and people are also calling into the hotline

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Speaker 2: to be able to just verbally tell us right what

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Speaker 2: they want to tell us, and all of that forms

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Speaker 2: part of the evidence base that will go forward with

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Speaker 2: us towards a final report and hopefully some modern legislation

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Speaker 2: if appropriate.

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Speaker 1: And so will those submissions be published, those written submissions,

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Speaker 1: and also the people verbally calling.

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Speaker 2: That's a decision for the committee, and in actual fact,

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Speaker 2: that's a decision we'll be taking at tomorrow morning's committee

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Speaker 2: meeting at ten am. So one of the things on

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Speaker 2: the agenda is confirming that the submissions that come through

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Speaker 2: will by default all be public. If occasionally somebody writes

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Speaker 2: into us saying that I don't want this to go public,

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Speaker 2: then that's the thing we consider separately, and then we

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Speaker 2: determine whether or not it should go public or not.

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Speaker 2: But in the ordinary course of events, all the submissions

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Speaker 2: that come through to the inquiry will be public and

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Speaker 2: available online.

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Speaker 1: And so another meeting happening tomorrow morning. What else is

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Speaker 1: going to be on the agenda.

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Speaker 2: For that one, Well, tomorrow morning's big agenda item is

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Speaker 2: essentially appointing a specialist legal advisor to help us on

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Speaker 2: the journey. Because what we're trying to do here, as

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Speaker 2: I've said before, is not reinvent the wheel, but progress

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Speaker 2: the agenda. And so what we really need in that

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Speaker 2: regard is somebody to help us to get from all

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Speaker 2: of territory's thoughts to something that is legally sound. And

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Speaker 2: so tomorrow we'll be looking at some excellent candidates who

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Speaker 2: are going to be helping us on the journey legally.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So by tomorrow afternoon we should know who that

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Speaker 1: person is going to be.

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Speaker 2: By tomorrow morning, we'll have made that decision, and a

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Speaker 2: couple of days later we will again, on next Monday,

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Speaker 2: the twenty eighth, have another meeting, at which point we

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Speaker 2: will hopefully confirm and codify those meeting minutes. And so

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Speaker 2: once that happens Monday week, I will be in a

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Speaker 2: position to be able to make those announcements publicly.

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Speaker 1: That'll be good. It'll be good to find out exactly

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Speaker 1: who that person's going to be. Now, Tansil tell me,

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Speaker 1: I mean you've just touched on then further meetings taking

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Speaker 1: place tomorrow as soon as tomorrow, but have further meetings

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Speaker 1: and consultations taken place, you know, with the community.

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Speaker 2: As well, not specifically with the community directly yet, because

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Speaker 2: it's been about getting all our ducks in a row,

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Speaker 2: as I pointed out before, So we've had a range

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Speaker 2: of meetings. We last met when was it on the well,

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Speaker 2: I'm forgetting anywhere. But the bottom line is we're about

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Speaker 2: to meet again tomorrow and again on Monday before for

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Speaker 2: the weak of parliamentary sittings. At the Monday meeting, sorry,

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Speaker 2: at the parliamentary sittings coming up, the committee will also

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Speaker 2: table an interim report to the Parliament so that all

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Speaker 2: members as well as the public are aware of where

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Speaker 2: we're up to. But what we're essentially doing now in

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Speaker 2: tomorrow's meeting and on Monday's meeting is finalizing our public

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Speaker 2: hearing schedule for remote engagement throughout the month of August.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so throughout August is essentially when those public consultations

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Speaker 1: will happen. That's correct, yeh. Do you have a fair

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Speaker 1: idea yet of where they'll be, like if you're going

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Speaker 1: out to specific communities and that kind of thing.

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Speaker 2: We have a working list of places that we're looking

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Speaker 2: to go to, but it's very much contingent on community willingness,

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Speaker 2: their availability, their interest, and some resource constraints as well.

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Speaker 2: But at the moment, we're tentatively throughout August going to

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Speaker 2: be in about twelve different places, including non exhaustively Ali Kerrang,

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs, Bora, Lula Managarita, Nuka Papana, Santa Theresa, tennin

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Speaker 2: Creek where Ima Younger. There are a few others as well,

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Speaker 2: and again that is a tentative list. I should be

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Speaker 2: cared because what we're trying to do is not go

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Speaker 2: out unannounced or uninvited. We've been going through a careful

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Speaker 2: process of letting all the stakeholders out there know we'd

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Speaker 2: like your thoughts on this issue. Would we be welcome

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Speaker 2: to come and have a conversation with you? And it

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Speaker 2: may be the case that some communities would prefer you didn't,

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Speaker 2: but those that do want us to come out, we

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Speaker 2: will certainly make our best effort and endeavor to get

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Speaker 2: out to it.

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Speaker 1: So you're hoping to visit twelve different communities in August, ALIGNE.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot. Do you feel like you'll be able

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Speaker 1: to sort of do the thorough consultation that's required.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean the whole point here is that the

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Speaker 2: committee is working really well across party lines to resolve

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Speaker 2: this issue for the Northern Territory, and that means that

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Speaker 2: we have to be pragmatic about working within our time

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Speaker 2: and resource constraints. And so look, there are only so

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Speaker 2: many places you can get in the working days in August,

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Speaker 2: but pretty much throughout the month of August, every Tuesday morning,

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Speaker 2: we as a committee will be heading out to a

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Speaker 2: community and sort of coming back at the end of

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Speaker 2: the week. And we've all committed to investing that time

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Speaker 2: because we all believe this is an important issue that

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Speaker 2: Territorians want us to get on top of Tanseil.

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Speaker 1: It's quite a tight turnaround for the committee, Mini, I

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Speaker 1: should say, in terms of reporting back to the government,

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Speaker 1: I mean, are you confident that you're going to be

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Speaker 1: able to really do the thorough consultation and then you

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Speaker 1: get something back that will hopefully mean that at some

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Speaker 1: stage where you know we're going to go to a

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Speaker 1: vo sure that you know that I don't know that

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Speaker 1: this actually really genuinely does progress for Territorians.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm quietly confident about that, Katie. And the reason is,

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Speaker 2: as I say, because we are a committee of five

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Speaker 2: now that are working together for the betterment of Territorians

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Speaker 2: on this issue. We know that there is limited time.

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Speaker 2: Nobody wants us to be doing an inquiry for the

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Speaker 2: next three years. Nobody also wants us to be doing

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Speaker 2: a nonsense inquiry for three minutes. We found a happy

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Speaker 2: middle ground where we're doing the best we can to

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Speaker 2: gather some supplementary data and information to add to everything

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Speaker 2: that we already have over many years, which also includes,

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Speaker 2: of course the independent Expert Panel report from last year,

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Speaker 2: which is very much the basis of our inquiry. We

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Speaker 2: were asked to essentially look into that, look into the

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Speaker 2: model that they were suggesting, go out and do some

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Speaker 2: extra remote consultation, think about specific challenges for the NTY,

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Speaker 2: and then if appropriate, move towards a solution. Right some

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Speaker 2: drafting instructions.

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Speaker 1: And model bill.

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Speaker 2: Now to do those kind of things, what we need

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Speaker 2: to do is juggle parallel processes, and that's why I'm

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Speaker 2: on here talking to you about this today rather than

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Speaker 2: at the end of when everything is fixed up. That's

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Speaker 2: why I'm lodging interim reports to the Parliament as we go,

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Speaker 2: so that people have an idea of what we're doing.

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Speaker 2: And I'm absolutely confident that we will be able to

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Speaker 2: report back to the Attorney General in the House in

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Speaker 2: September and we will simply see where we're at at

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Speaker 2: that point. But you know, this is an issue that

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Speaker 2: takes time to implement in the real world and so

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Speaker 2: it's going to take a little bit of time after

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Speaker 2: a report has generated a model bill is before the House.

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Speaker 2: But I'm confident that the government wants to move forward

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Speaker 2: with this issue, and that's why they've asked us to

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Speaker 2: do this work.

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Speaker 1: Tansel. It's a tough issue, right, like you and I

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Speaker 1: have spoken about this before, but politically it's a tough

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Speaker 1: one as well, in the sense that there's going to

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Speaker 1: be people from you know, there's going to be independence,

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Speaker 1: there's going to be members of Parliament, there's going to

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Speaker 1: be members of the opposition that all sort of disagree

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Speaker 1: to different elements, Like how do we are you, I guess,

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Speaker 1: are you confident that the work that you and the

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Speaker 1: remainder of the committee are doing is actually going to

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Speaker 1: get us to a point where we can finally, you know,

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Speaker 1: finally introduce voluntary assisted dying in the Northern territory.

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Speaker 2: Well, my commitment to territories is this, I will engage

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Speaker 2: in a thorough inquiry, I will produce a thorough report,

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Speaker 2: we will, if appropriate, produce model provisions for a bill,

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Speaker 2: and at that point it's up to the government to

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Speaker 2: decide how they want to proceed, the Government, though has

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Speaker 2: made clear that if we get to that point, there

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Speaker 2: will be a conscience vote on this matter. So at

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Speaker 2: that point it doesn't become a matter of what party

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Speaker 2: you belong to. It becomes a matter for each individual

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Speaker 2: member of Parliament to think about where they sit on

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Speaker 2: the issue and how they feel about a model bill,

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Speaker 2: how their community feels about it, how their constituency feels

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Speaker 2: about it. So, for example, I will be engaging in

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Speaker 2: a broad survey of all of the members of Fong

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Speaker 2: Limb over the month of August and September, asking my

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Speaker 2: constituents how do you feel about issues around voluntary cisedining,

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Speaker 2: so that if we get to a point where we

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Speaker 2: need to talk about a bill, I'll be armed with

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Speaker 2: the information to be able to say, well, my constituents

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Speaker 2: feel this way, and I'll know how I feel about it,

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Speaker 2: and on the balance of that be able to make

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Speaker 2: a sensible discision.

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Speaker 1: And that's exactly I think what people expect their local

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Speaker 1: member to do is, you know, engage with them to

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Speaker 1: get a fair understanding of how they feel, and that's

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Speaker 1: exactly what our local members are elected to do. So absolutely, Yeah, well, look,

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning, and I look

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Speaker 1: forward to receiving those updates. Tansel Rahman, the member for

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Speaker 1: Fonglimb and also the chair of the Legal and Constitutional

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Speaker 1: Affairs Committee, thanks so much for joining us, for having

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Speaker 1: me again, Katie, thank you