Canberra MLAs are calling on the federal government to scrap laws that make it impossible for the ACT to decide whether it should introduce voluntary assisted dying.
A motion to be tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Wednesday will emphasise that, by mid-2021, all Australian states will have either passed voluntary assisted dying legislation or have bills proposing it before their parliaments.
The ACT and the Northern Territory are legally prohibited from introducing bills on voluntary assisted dying due to a federal law, the so-called Andrews Bill, which was passed in 1997.
Canberra MLAs have long called for the prohibition to be scrapped, and earlier this month some accused the federal government of breaching international law with the ban.
In the motion to be tabled in the Assembly, MLAs again drew the federal government's attention to its international human rights obligations that guaranteed "citizens the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs".
The signatories to the motion were Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee, ACT Human Rights Minister Tara Cheyne and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury, all of whom have spoken out against the voluntary assisted dying ban before.
The motion said the MLAs held "profound disappointment" that the prohibition still existed.
It said the Commonwealth was allowed to make laws for both the ACT and the Northern Territory on any subject, but it rarely exercised that power.
The motion said: "Regardless of one's views about voluntary assisted dying, there should not be any controversy in allowing the ACT and [Northern Territory] to decide for themselves whether to introduce such legislation, and to allow citizens of the ACT an opportunity to legislate on this matter if their communities desire.
"No Australian citizen should be disadvantaged or discriminated against with respect to their democratic or human rights on the basis of where they live."
Earlier this month, Ms Lee asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to let the ACT make laws on voluntary assisted dying.
She did not disclose the substance or outcome of the discussion, but said ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Labor had to do their part in "lobbying the seven Labor senators who voted against this just two years ago".
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