Three decades after the NT first legalised voluntary assisted dying, Territorians are still waiting on change

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25-05-2025

For Steve, every day is more painful than the last.
Warning: This story contains graphic details of health conditions.
After four-and-a-half years of medical treatment, the cancer that originated in his lungs is still spreading, while a tumour in his neck bleeds a half-a-litre of blood a week.
At 62 years old, with every medical avenue exhausted, his options are limited.
"I'm looking forward to an agonising number of weeks," he said.
"If I have a fall I'll possibly bleed out here at home. Otherwise I can admit myself to hospital and bleed out there."
Steve, who has asked for his surname not to be used, was in his thirties when the Northern Territory became the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in 1995.
The legalisation was short-lived.
In 1997, federal parliament passed a bill, introduced by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, that overturned the law and prevented both of Australia's territories from legalising VAD until 2022.
As of 2025, the Northern Territory is Australia's only state or territory without VAD legislation, with the ACT passing laws last year.
At his home in Weddell, a suburb in Darwin's rural area, Steve questions why the process is taking so long.
"I just want the choice to be able to go in my own time, without all the pain that I know I'm going to face. No mess, no fuss basically," he said.
With weeks to live, Steve will admit himself to hospital when the time comes and "try [to] pass as quickly as he can".
"Without VAD that's the only option I have, except for taking my own life, which I don't really want to do," he said.
In 1995, then-chief minister Marshall Perron brought the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill before the NT parliament.
He said he found his government debating two main groups in opposition — the NT Council of Churches and the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
"The AMA were simply saying that this had never been done before, that these matters should be left to doctors," he said.
Philip Nitschke, a former physician and high-profile VAD advocate who has rallied the medical community to support the practice, said he found the AMA took a "paternalistic" approach to what was a personal issue.
"The argument was that doctors don't end lives, doctors save lives, [and] if you start ending lives it will destroy the so-called doctor-patient relationship," he said.
Thirty years later the AMA has shifted its stance, updating its position statement on VAD to focus on regulation rather than opposition.
The NT Council of Churches, Mr Perron said, was "a different kettle of fish".
In 1995, the group argued VAD was antithetical to foundational Christian values, a position it continues to hold.
The Australian Christian Lobby has repeatedly voiced its opposition to VAD over the years and has implored the current NT Country Liberal Party (CLP) government to consider whether there is demand for such legislation.
The NT's Catholic Bishop in Darwin, Charles Gauci, said he opposed the practice, believing that it was "not an ethical way to go", but had sympathy for people who felt the need to use it.
"We need to provide loving, palliative care for the dying person and their families," he said.
Charles Darwin University senior lecturer Devaki Monani, who in 2023 sat on the expert advisory panel tasked with consulting NT communities on potential VAD legislation, said religion remained a concern for some.
"A lot of people came up to me after the consultation and said 'look, I'm Christian and VAD is at crossroads with my belief systems'," she said.
"It was a big elephant in the room for a lot of community members."
In December 2022, a 25-year ban on the territories' rights to legislate VAD crumbled.
The Restoring Territory Rights Bill, spearheaded by Darwin-based MP Luke Gosling and Canberra MP Alicia Payne, passed the federal Senate, overturning "Andrews bill".
But change has been slow to eventuate in the NT.
The former NT Labor government was criticised for inaction when it said in 2023 it would not progress VAD legislation until at least 2024, after the territory election.
In July 2024, an expert advisory panel commissioned by Labor handed down its final report recommending the government bring back VAD in the NT.
Progress has since stalled again, with the CLP government, elected in August, citing a lack of community consultation for not yet drafting legislation.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has emphasised the importance of including Indigenous Australians in the consultation process.
"Aboriginal people are very important stakeholders in this conversation," she said this month.
"The original report was consulted on up and down the Stuart Highway in the main towns, it wasn't taken out to remote communities."
Dr Monani said the expert advisory panel's process had included remote Indigenous residents.
"All communities across the territory were given the opportunity to contribute, and Indigenous communities did so too," she said.
According to its final report, the advisory panel held 10 consultation sessions with communities, including the remote towns of Nhulunbuy and Wadeye, and 47 consultations with health, education, community and faith organisations over an eight-month period.
It found 73 per cent of Territorians believed a person should be able to choose when they die.
The report also made several findings on "cultural issues relevant to the NT", including the importance of cross-cultural communication and trauma-informed care.
In May 2025, 30 years after the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill was legislated, independent MLA Justine Davis brought forward a motion urging the NT government to implement VAD.
On the same day, the government tasked the parliament's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee with consulting communities across the Northern Territory on VAD and, if recommended, providing drafting instructions for a new law.
The committee will be required to report back by September 30.
"Today marks a significant victory for people in the Northern Territory," Ms Davis said on the day.
"This decision will bring much needed relief for those who are suffering."
But for Steve, while that news is welcome, any change that comes will be too late.
"I wish it had been available for me but that's not possible. So I just hope the baton will be carried on and people in future won't suffer," he said.