X-Message-Number: 6872 Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 08:43:16 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Australia update From the Sydney Morning Herald September 10, 1996 Leaders support conscience vote on euthanasia By MARGO KINGSTON in Canberra The three major party leaders have declared their support for the anti-euthanasia private member's bill introduced into Federal Parliament yesterday, as lobbying began to decide the fate of the first bill subject to a genuine conscience vote in 22 years. The Euthanasia Laws Bill would declare the Northern Territory, ACT and Norfolk Islands legally incapable of making laws allowing terminally ill patients to ask their doctors or anyone else to end their lives or assist in their suicide. But it stops short of banning euthanasia around Australia to avoid States-righters' opposition, and all three NT politicians will oppose it as a denial of self-government for the Territories when the bill is debated next week. A vote is expected next month. The bill, tabled by conservative Liberal Mr Kevin Andrews, comes after the NT Supreme Court threw out a challenge to the NT law, the first in the world to give patients the right to ask their doctor to help them die. The Prime Minister, Mr Howard, who decided to allow the free vote, yesterday confirmed his support, as did National Party leader Mr Fischer. The Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, supports it in principle, subject to studying the bill's detail. But NSW Labor MP Mr Anthony Albanese and South Australian Liberal MP Ms Chris Gallus joined forces to lead opposition to the bill: Ms Gallus said the NT law "takes away the power of the doctor and puts it where it should be - with the patient". The last genuine conscience vote on a Federal bill was in 1974, when the Coalition allowed its members a free vote on the Family Law legislation on no-fault divorce. (It allowed a free vote on the Sex Discrimination bill in 1986, but only after several members threatened to cross the floor.) Liberal and Labor opponents fear it is the first of several attempts by the conservative Coalition parliamentary group, the Lyons Forum, to drag the Federal Parliament into moral issues. One Liberal opponent said "there's a real danger the moral minority will drag us into a moral morass, and the next cab off the rank will be abortion". The bill will split both parties across factional lines, with Catholic Liberal moderates voting for the bill, and some libertarian dries voting against it on the individual rights grounds. Mr Kevin Andrews, a core member of the Lyons forum, said he believed two-thirds of the Coalition would vote for the bill in the House of Representatives, and about 50 per cent of Labor members. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6872