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Katie Woolf spoke with Senator Sam McMahon · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now we know that the Senator for the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Sam McMahon, yesterday introduced a private senator's bill to
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  Speaker 1: Right or Wrong, committed almost twenty five years ago to
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  Speaker 1: the day, to well elevate the rights of alleviate I
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  Speaker 1: should say, the rights of territorians to the same level
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  Speaker 1: as all Ossy's.
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  Speaker 2: The Senator says the purpose of the Ensuring.
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Rights Bill twenty twenty one is to reduce
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  Speaker 1: the level of Commonwealth interference with laws in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: And Senator Sam McMahon joins me on the line right now,
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  Speaker 1: good morning to your senator.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 2: How are you not too bad?
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  Speaker 3: Now?
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  Speaker 2: Senator?
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  Speaker 1: Where are things at with the introduction of this bill?
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  Speaker 1: I understand that did you introduce it yesterday?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? Yeah, Katie, I did really, really exciting a historic
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  Speaker 3: day for the Northern Territory. I moved the motion yesterday
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  Speaker 3: in the Senate yesterday afternoon to introduce the bill, and
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  Speaker 3: and that motion passed, so we had the bill introduced
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  Speaker 3: and the first and second reading speeches. Everything went through
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  Speaker 3: without a hitch. So the bill is well and truly
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  Speaker 3: on its way to restoring the territory's right to legislate
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  Speaker 3: for itself.
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  Speaker 2: So, Senator, we know that's well.
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  Speaker 1: Back quite some time ago, the Member for Mensies, Kevin Andrews,
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  Speaker 1: he introduced the bill that was designed to remove well
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  Speaker 1: from the Australian self governing territorians the ability to pass
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  Speaker 1: legislation well relating to euthanasia and assisted suicide. It's something
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  Speaker 1: which has been talked about for such a long time.
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  Speaker 1: So how is.
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  Speaker 2: What you've done yesterday? I mean, how's it different?
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  Speaker 1: I guess there'll be lots of people listening thinking is
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  Speaker 1: this really going to Are we really going to see
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  Speaker 1: any change here?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, Look, Katie, believe it or not, it was
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  Speaker 3: about twenty four years ago that that bill was introduced
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  Speaker 3: that squashed the territories right to have laws permitting assistant
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  Speaker 3: suicide or voluntary assisted dying, or however you want to
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  Speaker 3: describe it. So this bill will remove that. This bill
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  Speaker 3: will overturn that bill from twenty four years ago and
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  Speaker 3: will allow the Northern Territory to again make its own
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  Speaker 3: legislation around voluntary assisted dying should it choose to do so.
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  Speaker 2: So what are the next steps? Sam? Where are we at?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I know, that you said that the first
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  Speaker 1: and second reading happened. What needs to happen next?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, So what happens from here is that I have
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  Speaker 3: put forward a request for the bill to go to
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  Speaker 3: the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee and asked them to
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  Speaker 3: hold an inquiry in the Northern Territory during the month
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  Speaker 3: of September, so that that would involve hopefully at least
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  Speaker 3: Darwin and Alice Springs a face to face or in
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  Speaker 3: this day of COVID, it may well be a video
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  Speaker 3: or teleconference inquiry. The committee will then come back, write
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  Speaker 3: a report around the inquiry, present that to the Senate,
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  Speaker 3: and then I will be proposing to introduce the bill
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  Speaker 3: for debate in November.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, so November is Have you got any concerns that
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  Speaker 1: someone's going to handbreak you in some way?
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  Speaker 3: Look, Katie, that's that's always a possibility. Yep, that that
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  Speaker 3: is always something that could happen. But I'm very optimistic
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  Speaker 3: from everything, every conversation that I've had at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: I am very optimistic that this will be presented to
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  Speaker 3: the Senate for bait and voting. And I also believe
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  Speaker 3: that I have the numbers in the Senate and also
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  Speaker 3: in the in the lower House for members to vote
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  Speaker 3: and to pass this legislation. I'm very optimistic about that.
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  Speaker 2: Senator.
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  Speaker 1: Are you hoping that this is going to be your
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  Speaker 1: your legacy as a Senator?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Katie, look, that's that's not what I've done it for.
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  Speaker 3: This was this was something that I undertook to act
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  Speaker 3: on when I first came into the Senate, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: and obviously at that stage, I was hoping to or
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  Speaker 3: expecting to have quite a long career in the Senate,
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  Speaker 3: so I wasn't looking at this as something of a legacy.
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  Speaker 3: I was just looking at it as something that I
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  Speaker 3: could do for Territorians. So, you know, I guess the
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  Speaker 3: way things have turned out, it probably will turn into that. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: you're right.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, how does that sort of make you feel
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  Speaker 1: when you take into account what has happened I guess
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  Speaker 1: over the last couple of months in terms of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the colp selecting somebody else to run when your tenure
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  Speaker 1: is up.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well look, Okadie. To be honest, I guess it
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  Speaker 3: does make me feel quite sad for Territorians and the territory.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not really one to beat my own drum, but
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  Speaker 3: I think I have been a very effective advocate for
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory, and everyone tells me that I've achieved
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  Speaker 3: far more in my short term than most other senators have.
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  Speaker 3: So that does make me feel a great deal of
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  Speaker 3: regret for the Northern Territory that we're going to be
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  Speaker 3: losing that.
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  Speaker 1: Senator, I'm really interested to see what happens here. So
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  Speaker 1: do you reckon November? There's November realistically when we're going
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  Speaker 1: to see if this, if this does go through and
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  Speaker 1: we end up in a situation where it comes a
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  Speaker 1: decision for us as Territorians whether to allow euthanasia.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I said, I am. I am confident that
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  Speaker 3: November will be when it's introduced and voted on, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm confident that I do have the support to get
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  Speaker 3: it through. So obviously a lot can happen between now
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  Speaker 3: and then, and a lot can happen then as well.
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  Speaker 3: But I am confident, and yes, that will mean that
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  Speaker 3: very shortly after it's passed through the fly through the
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  Speaker 3: Senate and then the House, that the Northern Territory, if,
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  Speaker 3: if the if the Legislative Assembly should choose to do so,
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  Speaker 3: would be able to pass its own laws.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Senator Sam McMahon, we know that you know that
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  Speaker 1: these laws have passed in other states in recent times.
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  Speaker 1: It is something that's been on the agenda for other Australians,
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  Speaker 1: but up until this point something that Territorians realistically, while
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  Speaker 1: we may have wanted to have our say, we haven't.
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  Speaker 2: Been able to.
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  Speaker 1: So it's going to be really interesting to see where
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  Speaker 1: this all lands.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. Look people have said to me, you know, why,
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  Speaker 3: why do you think you're going to be successful now
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  Speaker 3: when previous attempts have failed, And I said, well, look,
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  Speaker 3: there's a few key factors. One is I'm a Northern
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  Speaker 3: Territory senator. Previous attempts have been put forward by senators
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  Speaker 3: from other jurisdictions. I'm from the Northern Territory. I represent
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  Speaker 3: and speak for Territorians. I'm also a government senator. I'm
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  Speaker 3: in government. Yeah, so that carries a lot more weight
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  Speaker 3: in me putting this forward. And times have changed. You know,
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  Speaker 3: when we made these laws, we were ahead of the game.
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  Speaker 3: We were revolutionary. We were the first jurisdiction in the world.
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  Speaker 3: Now many many other jurisdictions around the world and in
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  Speaker 3: states around Australia have passed similar legislation, so you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're not suddenly we're not so crazy. You know, we weren't.
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  Speaker 3: We weren't out of our minds and crazy. Then we
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  Speaker 3: were just ahead of the game and people didn't recognize that.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Senator Sam McMahon, always good to talk to you, but
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you taking the time to speak to us
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  Speaker 1: this morning from Canberra. Keep in contact, let us know
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  Speaker 1: how things progress.
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  Speaker 3: No worries. Thank you, Katie Sentinly, We'll do.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.