A key Liberal frontbencher who initially opposed voluntary assisted dying has switched her support, revealing how her father's choice of "a beautiful death" guided her change of heart.
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Jane Hume voted "no" in the last attempt in 2018 to overturn the 25-year-old federal Andrews law that prevents the ACT and Northern Territory from legislating on a right to assisted dying, citing the danger of the territories passing laws without the scrutiny of an upper house and concerns about safeguards. No legislation can safeguard against guilt, she felt at the time.
But with all states having since passed laws allowing voluntary assisted dying, scrutiny has been done and she now feels differently.
"This is going to be difficult", she admitted as she stood in the Senate on Wednesday and began to speak of her father.
"Steve, my dad, was one of the statistics that was mentioned ... Despite my parents' Catholic upbringing, and very conservative disposition, my parents had always been committed to exiting on their own terms," she said.
Senator Hume first realised her father was sick while organising for him to attend her first speech in the Parliament, but it took another three years to be revealed as cancer, followed by an all-too-soon decline. The former superannuation minister and now opposition spokeswoman for finance said she sat with her father in his hospital room as he, exhausted by treatments, explained to the doctor his choice.
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Organising a voluntary assisted dying in Victoria was not simple.
"Everything seemed to rely on someone else's willingness, someone else's timetable, not Dad's - so the safeguards that I questioned back then were not only there, they were almost insurmountable," the senator said.
Then COVID hit, but before restrictions would prevent larger gatherings, they held a living wake - a "really special day". There were safeguards right up until the very end, but they got to say goodbye.
Having once known in her heart that euthanasia was wrong, she now feels very differently.
"We say in this place that when we make a decision that we will walk a mile in another man's shoes - well I have certainly done that ... having held the hand of the person that I deeply loved as he died peacefully, as he died painlessly, as he died willingly, and in the manner in which he wanted."
Who am I to deny Territorians and Canberrans the choice to leave the Earth in the same "beautiful way", she said.
The territory rights bill has moved slowly in the Senate after it passed the House of Representatives nearly two months ago. Three hour-long sessions of debate have progressed through 20 speakers, but the list continues to grow as an unofficial filibuster from the no camp attempts to delay a final vote.
ACT senator David Pocock made a deal with Labor to allow for the Wednesday debate slot, but both sides expect November will be the earliest a vote can be held.
Other senators voicing their support in the debate on Wednesday were Labor's Malarndirri McCarthy, Carol Brown and Louise Pratt, and Liberal moderate Andrew Bragg. Liberal's Alex Antic and One Nation's Malcolm Roberts spoke against the bill.
Coalition senators Dean Smith, Gerard Rennick, Matt Canavan and Jonathon Duniam are still expected to speak on the bill before a vote can be held.
Senator Pratt said no one could find a jurisdiction that supports voluntary assisted dying more than Canberra.
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