Senate to hold final vote on territorial rights in overnight session

The law will repeal a 25-year-old law that barred the NT and ACT governments from voting on whether to allow voluntary death assistance in their jurisdictions.

The last time Parliament voted to repeal the law was in 2018, but it lacked two votes.

But the bill will almost certainly pass Thursday night in a late-night Senate meeting that won’t pass until after a final vote.

Last week, senators voted to bring the bill to its final stage by a vote of 41 to 25.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price of the country’s Liberals was the only senator from the territory to vote against.

An attempt to hold a final vote failed as opponents used the Senate’s filibuster procedure.

Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam led the postponement and noted that the Coalition would amend to add safeguards to ban euthanasia for people under 18.

But Labor Party’s Katie Gallagher argued that such amendments were unnecessary given that it was a simple repeal bill.

The bill would not legalize voluntary death assistance in the NT or ACT, but would give territorial governments the opportunity to discuss the matter.

Labor and Coalition senators were given the right to vote, but all 12 Greens would vote in favor of the bill.

The bill successfully passed the lower house in August by a vote of 99 to 37.

Originally published as Senate to hold final vote on territorial rights in overnight session