Chief Minister Andrew Barr will call for a select committee to investigate how Victoria's assisted dying scheme could apply to the ACT, as federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale looks to help overturn legislation that stops territories making laws on voluntary euthanasia.
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ACT Labor and the Greens last week launched a joint bid to overturn Andrews Bill, a federal law that has stopped the ACT and the Northern Territory legalising voluntary euthanasia for 20 years.
Senator Di Natale said people in the ACT should have the same opportunity to "have some choice and control over their final few weeks of life when they're diagnosed with terminal illness" as people in the states.
He and Labor senator Katy Gallagher last year co-sponsored a bill to dismantle Andrews Bill, but it has languished on the notice paper since last year.
But Senator Di Natale announced on Sunday the party would introduce a new bill that would allow the territories to debate and pass laws on assisted dying in 2018.
The Greens also want to make it easier to import lethal drugs and pave the way for a national assisted dying scheme.
"Hopefully before the parliament ends in a couple of weeks, we hope to be introducing legislation that will give the rights back to the territories to introduce assisted dying laws," Senator Di Natale said.
"We had in '95 in the Northern Territory laws that allowed individuals to access these compassionate laws.
"Unfortunately what we had was Kevin Andrews take that right away from the territories.
"Our plan is to give the territories back that right and we know in the ACT there's a very strong chance that will lead to the ACT passing voluntary assisted dying laws"
Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur said overturning Andrews Bill should not be conflated with assisted dying.
"It's clearly a conscience issue as far as voluntary assisted dying goes but it should not be a conscience issue as to whether or not the people of the territories of Australia have the same rights as the rest of Australia," Ms Le Couteur said.
Meanwhile, Mr Barr will move that a Legislative Assembly committee look into Canberrans' current end-of-life choices and ask the people of the ACT if they wanted voluntary euthanasia to be legalised.
It would assess the risks of assisted dying to individuals and the community, look at the impact of federal laws on the ACT's ability to make laws on it and how other assisted dying schemes could apply in the ACT, with a particular focus on the Victorian scheme.
The committee would be made up of two Labor, two Liberal and one Green MLA and be chaired bt a government member.
The committee would have to report its findings to the Assembly by the end of 2019.
