Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro says her government has the numbers to pass its voluntary assisted dying legislation, that ignored several key recommendations of its own review, with the bill to be introduced to Parliament tomorrow and expected to pass in August.

Ms Finocchiaro had pledged to make the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill a conscience vote in Parliament, but said on Wednesday that her CLP MLAs were “united in progressing the reforms” and that the bill would pass “without reliance on non-government members”. She later suggested a “majority” of her 17 members support the legislation.

The CLP in March added new eligibility criteria to the legislation – rejecting key recommendations from its own Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee report – that will require terminally ill patients to have a “condition that is advanced, progressive and expected to cause death within 12 months”, a move approved by the Australian Christian Lobby but criticised by others.

The proposed legislation will also impose a gag order on doctors, prohibiting them from initiating discussions with patients about assisted dying, another requirement the ACL backed, but which was criticised by former CLP chief minister Marshall Perron who first introduced assisted dying legislation to the NT back in 1995 as a private members’ bill.

Ms Finocchiaro praised her government on Wednesday for bringing its bill to Parliament and said Territorians could start accessing VAD services “in less than 18 months”.

“This [is] an historic moment and a hard-fought achievement,” she said.

“This is a defining moment for the Territory. For the first time in three decades, a Territory government is bringing legislation to the Parliament that gives the rights of voluntary assisted dying to the terminally ill.

“Let me be crystal clear: the CLP will introduce the Rights of the Terminally Ill laws [tomorrow], and we have a majority support to guarantee it becomes law in August. We are getting the job done.”

Attorney-General Marie Clare Boothby said she would reveal the full details of the legislation in Parliament on Thursday, which is expected to contain a few more surprises to water down the intent of the bill.

“But what is the most important part about this bill is that the voice of the most important person in the mix is heard, and that is the patient, which is why it’s wholly and solely patient-led,” she said.

Ms Boothby would not say at a press conference why the government imposed the 12-month timeframe requirement against the recommendation and gagged doctors from discussing VAD.

“So, we went largely with the recommendations of that inquiry, with a few divergences, as I’ve been very public and talking about,” she said. “And of course, tomorrow will be the chance that all Territorians will hear in full detail all of the parts that we’ve implemented.”

The 12-month requirement and the gag order on doctors initiating discussions on VAD are not in other states’ legislation.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said the government’s doctor gag order could prevent Territorians from making well-informed decisions about their end of life options.

“Patients are entitled to be provided information and be aware of what their treatment options are, and doctors need to be able to raise voluntary assisted dying during discussions about end-of-life options,” said RACGP NT chair Sam Heard.

“The consequences of this is that patients will miss out on that option.”

Mr Perron told the NT Independent in March that prognostic timeframes “are not safeguards in the true sense”.

“They do not protect the so-called ‘vulnerable’. Other provisions in the legislation already do that,” he said at the time.

“Their sole practical effect is to exclude eligible and suffering individuals from accessing VAD.

“In short, using a timeframe as a gatekeeping mechanism is neither fair nor clinically sound. The NT parliamentary committee evaluated this evidence and concluded that eligibility should be based on intolerable and hopeless suffering, not an arbitrary timeframe.”

Mr Perron earned widespread respect across the country for introducing his euthanasia bill, which placed the NT ahead of every other jurisdiction in Australia for legalising euthanasia. But the legislation was overruled by a group led by conservative coalition Christian MPs in the federal parliament two years later.

Mr Perron resigned as chief minister hours before the bill was debated in NT Parliament so as not to be seen to be influencing his party how to vote. It passed in a 15-10 vote.

Mr Perron has criticised the current CLP’s handling of its bill, calling their management of the issue “inept”. He added in March that he expected the bill introduced to Parliament to be “overly bureaucratic and restrict eligibility”.