Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Human Rights Minister Tara Cheyne speaking about voluntary assisted dying passing the ACT Legislative Assembly.
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00:00Everyone, for your interest in this most significant piece of legislation,
00:06today the ACT Legislative Assembly has made a very significant decision,
00:12considering a piece of legislation that we've not been able to consider
00:18for most of this Assembly's history. I think at the commencement of this parliamentary term
00:25we were still barred from being able to consider end-of-life issues and it took a change in Federal
00:33Government, a cross-party coalition through both the House of Representatives and the Senate
00:40to enable the territories to be able to consider voluntary assisted dying issues.
00:47We said before the Federal Parliament made that decision and after that we would undertake a
00:56rigorous and mature process to arrive at the legislation that we have arrived at and I think
01:05we have certainly honoured that commitment to the people of Canberra. This legislation is amongst
01:13the most significant that this Parliament will ever consider and I am greatly heartened that
01:2020 of the 25 members have supported the legislation, 10 from the Labor Party, 6 from the Greens Party
01:28and 4 from the Liberal Party. I think that demonstrates that the legislation has broad
01:34political support that reflects the very broad community support that we have heard through
01:42the detailed development of the legislation.
01:47An extraordinary moment for the ACT. It's an extraordinary moment nationally because of
01:56the efforts of so many and in what this Bill represents and in what this Bill will do,
02:04in who has contributed to this Bill and when I say nationally it's because this Bill does set
02:11a new standard of fairness, a new standard of respecting autonomy, a new standard
02:19of decision making at the end of someone's life
02:25and I hope that it provides comfort to so many who have been waiting and wanting.
02:33I hope it provides comfort in some way to the states who have done an enormous amount
02:40in leading the way and indeed contributing to the development of our work,
02:46including the lessons that we have learned from them and about the challenges and the barriers
02:54and about the challenges and the barriers that exist there. We have shown that there
03:02is a better way for people to die if they are intolerably suffering.
03:09I'll say that again because I swear I can pronounce that. We have shown that there is a
03:14better way to die for people who are intolerably suffering and there is also
03:21a better voluntary assisted dying scheme, one that reflects our community's values and what
03:28they told us, one that has the support of our clinical community, those who will be working
03:35in this space, one that has the support from so many people who have given countless hours
03:44of advice and expertise and personal stories and for that we are going to implement a scheme
03:53that reflects the best bill in the country, that will be the best scheme
03:57in the country and that provides autonomy and choice to people at the ends of their lives.