After the Northern Territory’s right to legislate on euthanasia was restored, two inquiries were held, with one highlighting a shift in Indigenous communities thinking on voluntary assisted dying, moving from seeing it as the sorcerer’s needle and “kill business” to it allowing people to finish up on country, with family and at a time of one’s choosing, writes Dr Robyn Smith.
A post-euthanasia legislation education campaign in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in 1996 revealed deep cultural fears about whitefella “kill business”, evidence that informed a federal inquiry, but it was moral arguments from outside the Territory that ultimately drove the law’s override, writes Dr Robyn Smith.
A century-old tension between the Northern Territory and Canberra frames the rise, fall, and revival of the world’s first voluntary euthanasia law, from Marshall Perron’s historic 1995 reform to its federal override by Kevin Andrews, and the long fight to reclaim the Territory’s right to decide.
Leanne Liddle’s current role is a big gig – not only does she have to convince police that their workplace is mired in systemic racism, she has to teach them exactly what that means and convince them to reject it – no easy task when you consider the colonial history of Australia, never mind the tinderbox that is the Northern Territory where the CLP government trades heavily on its tough-on-crime mantra, writes Dr Robyn Smith.
