October 15, 2015
New PM ‘more receptive’ on issue, says campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke
Voluntary euthanasia: PM Malcolm Turnbull ‘more receptive’ on issue, campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke says
Nitschke believes Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be more receptive than his predecessor to a proposal to remove laws that ended legal assisted suicide in the NT.
Speaking to 105.7 ABC Darwin from Switzerland, Dr Nitschke said Mr Turnbull had a more open and accepting position on euthanasia.
“With Prime Minister Turnbull, I think we may see a more receptive response to this proposal to remove this offensive piece of legislation, which has been in place for nearly 20 years,” he said.
Dr Nitschke’s comment came in response to news Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm would introduce a private members bill in the next Federal Parliament sittings to scrap the legislation that ended legal assisted suicide in the Northern Territory.
“While it is too late to simply reinstate the Northern Territory Act, repeal of the Andrews Bill would send a signal to states and territories that their legislatures may now turn their attention to this issue,” he said.
In 1997, while a backbencher in the Howard Government, former defence minister Kevin Andrews passed a private members bill that amended the Northern Territory’s Self Government Act, removing the power of the Territory to legalise euthanasia.
The bill nullified the NT’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, which had been in effect since July 1996.
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke, then the director of the Euthanasia No! group, worked with Mr Andrews on the bill.
Dr Nitschke said Senator Leyonhjelm’s bill had a better chance of passing with Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews now on the backbench.
“[Malcolm Turnbull] is much more prepared to listen to what is the overwhelming wishes of most Australian’s that they want changes to the laws,” he said