While it's commendable a private members bill intended to give Territorians the same democratic rights as residents of the states will go to the lower house next Monday, ACT and Northern Territory residents could be forgiven their concerns are being treated almost as an afterthought.
Not only has this taken a backseat to the packed legislative agenda the Albanese government is introducing against the backdrop of the usual pomp and circumstance this week, the way in which it is being addressed appears to focus on the emotive question of voluntary assisted dying rather than the much bigger issue of equal rights for all Australians.
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While it is true that if and when the legislation, to be introduced by Labor backbenchers Alicia Payne and Luke Gosling, is passed by both houses of Parliament the ACT Legislative Assembly will be able to debate and vote on issues such as VAD, that should not be determining the way in which individual MPs vote.
Like the same sex-marriage legislation that was overturned on appeal to the High Court by the Abbott government, voluntary assisted dying in the ACT is a question that will ultimately be decided by the men and women the residents of Canberra have elected to represent them in their own territory parliament.
Therefore, while the decision by the government to allow its members a conscience vote on the Payne-Gosling bill appears superficially reasonable, this is actually a bit of a put down for the people of Canberra and the NT. The question that should be uppermost in MPs' minds when they come to vote on the legislation in both the lower house and the Senate is whether one group of Australians - those who live in the territories - should have the right to elect a government with the same powers of representation as those who live in the states.
What such a government chooses to do with those powers should only be a matter of concern to Canberra and Northern Territory voters. The idea that some, perhaps even many, federal MPs could vote against equal rights for Canberrans simply because they are opposed to voluntary assisted dying is repugnant.
That is particularly so when you consider that voluntary assisted dying laws have been passed in every state in the Commonwealth. The only major jurisdictions where they have not been legislated and are in, or are about to take effect in, are the ACT and the Northern Territory.
That absence is not the result of a lack of public interest or of political will. It is the direct consequence of the John Howard-era Andrews bill, which was passed in response to the Northern Territory's adoption of Australia's first euthanasia legislation nearly 30 years ago.
It is also unfortunate that, due to the volume of legislation that needs to be introduced before the Parliament adjourns next Friday until September 5, there will not be an opportunity for all interested MPs to speak on the private members bill in the lower house; just the five ACT and Northern Territory MPs.
The other MPs will have to make their contributions in the federation chamber.
Territory rights are not, and should not, be treated as a second-order issue. And, even more importantly, they should not be conflated with an individual's religious or ideological beliefs.
By curtailing the rights of Territorians the 1996 Andrews bill demeaned Australian democracy and diminished every citizen. It deserves to be overturned by a unanimous vote in both the upper and lower chambers as un-Australian and discriminatory before Parliament rises at the end of next week.
