NSW Senator Andrew Bragg has weighed in on the fresh debate over territory rights and voluntary assisted dying, which has been sparked by a new push to restore the NT's right to legislate on euthanasia.

The Canberra Times this week canvassed Liberal parliamentarians on the topic, which confirmed the deeply held views which exist on both sides of the debate.

NT Country Liberal Senator Sam McMahon has excluded the ACT from her draft bill after ACT Senator Zed Seselja signalled he wouldn't support it.

Mr Seselja's stance, which is based on his long-held opposition to euthanasia, has sparked a political backlash, with former Liberal chief minister Kate Carnell urging him to put aside his personal views and back the territory's right to decide its own fate.

Veteran Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz, who with Kevin Andrews helped spearhead the 1997 bill which banned the ACT and NT from legislating on this issue, supported Senator Seselja's stance and believed it wouldn't harm him at the ballot box.

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"If he was to vote against the legislation, I would imagine there might be people who would say that he has been true to his beliefs and I would imagine it would not diminish his supporter base in the community at all," Senator Abetz said.

Senator Abetz said it was appropriate federal parliament had used its power under the constitution to block the territories from legislating on euthanasia because of the "gravity" of the issue.

He argued the Commonwealth could not "wash its hands" of decisions taken by the territories, because it was ultimately responsible for them.

"My opposition is overwhelming because of the gravity of the issue [euthanasia]," he said.

"As soon as we accept the concept that there a human life not worth living, irrespective of its circumstances, we diminish our common humanity."

Senator Bragg, who lived in Canberra while studying at Australian National University, opposed the ban on territories legislating on euthanasia for two reasons.

As a federalist, he believed having made the decision to entrust the territories with self-government they - like the other states - should be "left to get on with their business".

Secondly, he argued as a "live and let live political movement", the Liberals should not be trying to intervene.

"We should be letting people make their own decisions," he said. "The proviso is that those protections [for euthanasia] should be in place - but that is for the ACT to decide. We shouldn't be doing things that are illiberal."

Senator Bragg's comments had echoes of a speech earlier this year from Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who declared Canberrans should be able to determine "their own lives and their own destinies" as he backed a motion from Labor's Andrew Leigh calling for a repeal of the Andrews Bill.

While the ACT's four Labor federal parliamentarians support a repeal of the Andrews Bill, there is a broad range of views across the party.

A number of current Labor senators - including Don Farrell, Pat Dodson and Deb O'Neill - voted against David Leyonhjelm's 2018 bill, which was defeated by just two votes.

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