A late-night sitting of the Senate is set to resolve the 25-year fight to restore the rights of the ACT and Northern Territory to legislate on euthanasia. Source: Canberra Times.
The upper house will resume debate on Alicia Payne and Luke Gosling’s private members bill next Thursday afternoon and won’t rise until it reaches a final vote.
The territory rights bill will be debated for another hour this Thursday morning – but that almost certainly won’t be enough time to reach a final vote because of the number of senators planning to make speeches.
The new slot was carved out under a deal between Labor, the Greens and ACT independent Senator David Pocock, which handed the Government two extra sitting days to rush through its packed legislative agenda.
Finance Minister and ACT Labor Senator Katy Gallagher earlier this week guaranteed that the territory rights bill would be voted on in the final sitting fortnight of the year.
Territory rights was initially set to be relegated to the final order of business next Friday, as the Albanese Government prioritised the passage of its contentious industrial relations shakeup and a bill to establish a national anti-corruption watchdog.
Senator Pocock was concerned with that approach and pushed for a re-think. Senator Gallagher eventually agreed to change the plans, moving the territory rights debate forward to late Thursday afternoon.
FULL STORY
Date set for final territory rights vote (By Dan Jervis-Barry, Canberra Times)
