Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Pursuant to contingent notice, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent him moving a motion relating to the conduct of the business of the Senate, namely a motion to give precedence to general business notice of motion no. 546.

I was prepared to simply have a count of the voices on that motion but, seeing as formality has been denied, I hope whoever denied it—Senator George Campbell—will let us know why. It is a very simple motion about the right of Australians to die with dignity. I particularly wanted it dealt with today because we are approaching the 10th anniversary of the death of Bob Dent, the first person to have a legally assisted and compassionate death under the Northern Territory euthanasia laws. There were four such people before there was as override from this parliament. That happened in March 1997 finally, with the passage of a private member’s bill known as the Andrews legislation.

It is high time that we revisited this issue, because we as a mature nation ought to be moving to allow Australians to die with dignity. The obvious alternative viewpoint is that Australians do not have the right to die with dignity, and to block a vote on the matter is to lead me to now call for a debate on the matter. That, of course, will be determined by the vote that is going to follow after this very short debate. It is an important matter. It should not be swept under the carpet and it is a matter for debate. I know that there will be the argument that this is not the way to do it, that it should be done in some other forum or that we should be debating it in some other way. But, if you look at the record, nobody brought it forward in the long intervening period until I did now.

As a former doctor, I am aware through the Medical Journal of Australia that there are some 4,000 assisted compassionate deaths by doctors in Australia at the moment. We ought to legalise the matter. We ought to ensure that those Australian citizens who are dying from a terminal illness without chance of a recovery, who are suffering and who find indignity in the long process of death in an age when the dying process as well as the living process in our society is becoming longer, have a right to a determination to end the indignity and the suffering and, with their families and with the backup of proper medical authority, are able to have a release from that suffering.

The matter is important. I will listen carefully to the debate. I suspect there will be statements that this is not the proper way to do it. Senator Allison has a bill on the Notice Paper. I have spoken with her about that, and I support that bill. In fact, I was moving for the same legislation to be brought forward on the Notice Paper. We will be moving to have that brought up for debate, and let the debate be enjoined. The worst thing is to have our heads in the sand—to be trying to deny that as we sit here comfortably today there are people in very undignified circumstances in a slow, prolonged dying process in this nation of ours who should be given an option but who are not being given that option. Since the debate in this place, other countries, including Catholic Belgium, have moved to give people that right. Australia should be doing the same.

I feel very strongly about this because, as a doctor, I have been involved in the process of people being in a long dying process who do not want to continue their suffering, their indignity. And only they can determine that. Of course there have to be proper rules and forms, and we know all about those in Australia. We have the wit and wisdom to do that and not to leave the situation where doctors have to make decisions without proper conversation with their patients—and to do it every day in Australia. This motion is just the start of a process. I suspect we may get a vote against having a debate on the matter. I think that is a sad reflection on the courage of us all to take on this important issue, debate it and come to a better result than we have so far.