NT backbencher moves amendments to voluntary assisted dying bill

A Northern Territory government backbencher has announced he will move amendments to his own party's long-awaited bill to introduce voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in the Territory in a bid to make the legislation "consistent with best practice".

Country Liberal Party (CLP) MLA Tanzil Rahman today confirmed he would move three amendments to the party's Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill when it returns to parliament later this month.

The bill is set to pass the NT parliament in a conscience vote after receiving majority support.

With the NT the last jurisdiction where voluntary assisted dying is not legal, after the federal government overturned Australia-first laws in 1997, the bill's passage would legalise the practice in all Australian states and territories.

The bill, proposed by Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby, would only allow access to voluntary assisted dying for people with 12 months or less left to live.

Australian states require VAD applicants to have been given less than six to 12 months to live, though in the ACT there is no set timeframe for access.

The NT bill would also bar healthcare professionals from initiating conversations about VAD with patients — a so-called "gag clause" that has recently been overturned in Victoria.

Both of those clauses go against the recommendations of a report by a parliamentary inquiry, led by Dr Rahman, that was tabled in October last year.

Dr Rahman's proposed amendments would dissolve the 12-month prognosis restriction and allow healthcare workers to initiate conversations about VAD if they believed a patient met eligibility requirements.

It would also prevent care facilities from refusing to provide information about VAD in residential settings.

Dr Rahman said he was moving the amendments "in what I believe to be the best interest of Territorians, as a matter of conscience and consistent with best practice and scholarly evidence".

"[The amendments] provide terminally ill people with freer access to information about VAD, and greater freedom to choose VAD when they are clearly dying and suffering," he said.

He said he was pleased to be part of a government that was progressing VAD laws for NT residents and was doing so through a conscience vote.

Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby said the CLP believed in "the freedom for MLAs to speak and vote their conscience — to represent their communities".

Seniors advocacy group supports amendments

Council on the Ageing NT chief executive Sue Shearer said she supported the proposed amendments, but had other concerns about the legislation.

"If Dr Rahman can get it through that would be fantastic, but other than that we really don't want it delayed," she said.

"We just want it done and dusted. Territorians have waited since 1997 for this."

Ms Shearer said doctors could have conscientious objections to VAD, but that should not impact their patients.

"When they're dealing with a patient, they should be able to say at the end of this particular disease you have choices … that's just the logical way to do it," she said.

Ms Shearer said if the amendments failed to pass, she hoped the prognosis limit and gag clause would be looked at in a future review of the laws promised by the government.