The ACT’s push for its right to legislate on voluntary euthanasia has been dealt a blow after the federal Government said there were no plans to reverse a Commonwealth ban. Source: Canberra Times.
Federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has confirmed the Morrison Government’s position in a letter to the ACT and Northern Territory governments.
Senator Cash’s response comes almost seven months after the territories accused the Government of breaching international law.
ACT Human Rights Minister Tara Cheyne and NT Attorney-General Selena Uibo wrote to former federal attorney-general Christian Porter in March.
In the joint letter they accused the Government’s laws of being inconsistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations, as territorians were refused democratic rights of citizens of other states.
The letter, which was also addressed to the then-deputy prime minister Michael McCormack and the Assistant Minister for Territories Nola Marino, had been handballed across portfolios before Ms Cash responded last week.
In her response, Senator Cash said the Morrison Government had no plans to introduce legislation to repeal the ban on the territories.
In a joint statement, Ms Cheyne and Ms Uibo slammed the response, saying it failed to respond to the human rights implications the letter had raised.
The territories have been barred from making their own laws on euthanasia since 1997, after Liberal MP Kevin Andrews introduced a bill to block the territories ability to legislate on the matter.
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Federal government has no plans to repeal euthanasia ban (By Lucy Bladen, Canberra Times)
