Division erupts in Northern Territory parliament over voluntary assisted dying legislation

Division within the Northern Territory government has erupted in parliament, with politicians clashing during debate over long-awaited voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation.

The Country Liberal Party's (CLP) VAD bill was being debated into the night on Tuesday, when NT government backbencher Tanzil Rahman accused his colleagues of being inauthentic and of deliberately mischaracterising the VAD debate.

Dr Rahman said the claimed behaviour "genuinely upsets me", describing the bill put forward by the CLP as "a very narrow VAD act, that will take us 10 years back in standard".

The first-term MLA, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into VAD, singled out NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby, who introduced the bill.

Ms Boothby has strongly defended the bill's "safeguards", which include a clause that will restrict VAD access to people with 12 months or less to live.

A controversial so-called doctor gag clause is also included, meaning medical professionals will not be able to initiate VAD discussions with terminally ill patients.

Dr Rahman has flagged that on Thursday he will move amendments to remove both clauses, which go against the recommendations made by the inquiry he chaired.

Another proposed amendment from Dr Rahman would prevent care facilities from refusing to provide information about VAD in residential settings.

Last night, he told NT parliament an individual's "terminality" — how sick they are, and therefore how likely they are to qualify for the 12-month window — was not always clear.

"Today, the attorney-general said, 'I make no apologies for the safeguards I put in place and similarly, the 12-month prognosis period … is so important. Without it, terminality is subjective and we just can't have that'," Dr Rahman said.

"Respectfully, I also can't make any apologies for the fact that I have to challenge that."

Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley immediately criticised Dr Rahman's contribution to the debate, backing in the 12-month timeframe.

"I think [Dr Rahman] unfairly attacked the attorney-general, saying that he couldn't support [the 12-month timeframe], because I think his words were it was 'subjective', '12 months'," he said.

"He put a proposal in his amendments, which I'll just read one of the lines: 'The person is approaching the end of the person's life' — that's subjective!

"So he's replacing, in his view, a 'subjective' sentence with another subjective [sentence]."

Mr Maley said Dr Rahman's "approach has gone all wrong".

"I wasn't going to speak about his amendments because I'm not going to support them, but I think his argument was just clearly wrong," he said.

"And having a go at the attorney-general using that word' subjective' and he's replaced it with three times that."

During his speech, Mr Maley criticised MLAs who had spoken to media publicly on the topic, saying the VAD issues were "above media hits".

It came after Dr Rahman and fellow government backbencher Laurie Zio — who is supportive of the amendments — both did interviews about VAD before the bill returned to parliament for debate.

"I know some people in the parliament have gone out in the media and done all sorts of things about it, but my view is above that," Mr Maley said.

"This is about a very delicate subject that needs to be treated with dignity.

"This is not about personal profiles or legacies … this is about getting things right for Territorians."

The amendments are unlikely to pass when a conscience vote is held on Thursday, with just six MLAs in the 25-seat parliament saying on Tuesday they would definitely support changes to the bill.

Opposition Leader Selena Uibo is also planning to move similar amendments to Dr Rahman, but it is currently unclear how many Labor MLAs will support them.

The NT was the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise voluntary assisted dying in 1995, but the laws were overturned by the Commonwealth in 1997.

The Territory did not regain the power to legislate its own VAD laws until 2022.