The Northern Territory Parliament passed voluntary assisted dying legislation Thursday night, three decades after first legalising it, with the ‘Rights of the Terminally Ill’ Bill approved, but amendments to remove restrictive clauses including the 12-month prognosis timeframe and the doctor gag clause were defeated with only eight of 23 voting members supporting their removal.

The vote was spruiked by the CLP as a conscience vote, meaning MLAs did not have to toe party lines, but only three CLP backbenchers dared to voice support for the amendments against the government’s proposed legislation.

Not a single CLP minister supported any of the multiple amendments, raising questions about the legitimacy of the conscience vote, while Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro emerged late last night to celebrate the passing of the controversial legislation as a “very surreal moment”.

The failure to remove the 12-month prognosis framework, which forbids terminally ill patients from accessing VAD if they are assessed as having more than 12 months to live, compromised the entire bill, former chief minister and architect of the Territory’s first Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill Marshall Perron said.

“The title of the law should be changed. The prognosis timeframe would prohibit Territorians who otherwise meet all the other eligibility requirements from accessing assistance to die,” he said.

“The law as it was in 1995, genuinely bestowed a right of access to competent terminally ill adults – the [current] bill … does not and it is dishonest to claim that it does.”

After hours spent pouring through the details of the proposed bill and multiple failed attempts to pass amendments removing the restrictive clauses, CLP backbencher and chair of the committee that recommended the legislation Tanzil Rahman moved a motion late last night to change the name of the bill to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act, given its unexplained changes against recommendations, which was also shut down by the CLP’s majority.

“This is not about anything other than being clear with Territorians about the fact that we’re passing a bill, and it’s a bill about VAD, but it’s not the bill that happened eons ago, and it isn’t about affording rights to the terminally ill commensurate with what a lot of people are expecting,” he said.

“But just to be accurate, there’s nothing wrong in the sense that this a step in the right direction, that there is progress for Territorians in passing this bill…but it does not reflect the scope of what was provided in the report. We want to be honest about what’s in the bill.”

Mr Rahman had earlier reiterated previous claims the CLP Government was taking the Territory “10 years back in time” with its proposed legislation that included the restrictions not found in other states’ laws, which Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby claimed earlier this week she had personally inserted in the bill as “safeguards”.

“It’s clearer and clearer there isn’t much appetite in this House for doing what is considered best practice across the country,” Mr Rahman said, adding nobody in government listened to the clinical recommendations in his report.

“Then so be it, let the Territory have the voluntary assisted dying Act it deserves.”

Independent Member for Johnston Justine Davis, who was one of the eight who supported removing the restrictions in multiple votes throughout the day and night, agreed the bill was not what Territorians expected.

“This will prevent some terminally ill people from accessing VAD,” she said.

Ms Davis had earlier pleaded with her parliamentary colleagues to remove the CLP’s restrictions, including the doctor gag clause that will now forbid doctors from raising VAD services with patients.

“People overwhelmingly want this across the Territory,” she said. “That’s what we are here to do. We have an opportunity now. We’ve heard all the evidence…we have an opportunity now to have the safest bill, the best bill, the bill that protects people’s rights and enables people to get the information they need to actually make a choice in a way that also protects the issues that people are worried about here.”

But the motion to defeat the clause was also shut down by the CLP.

The eight who supported motions against the CLP’s restrictions included Ms Davis, four Labor Members excluding Chansey Paech who abstained from participating, Mr Rahman and fellow CLP backbenchers Brian O’Gallagher and Laurie Zio. CLP Member for Blain Matthew Kerle also explored one vote against the government’s wishes before backtracking.

Labor Opposition Leader Selena Uibo argued against the 12-month prognosis timeframe.

“[There are] people who are suffering a terminal illness who may have a prognosis or a prediction of life ending that may be 14 months, it could be 13 months, it could be 15 months,” she said.

“So to disempower that individual, accessing the process or going through the journey of voluntary assisted dying, should they have the choice to do so, I think goes against what we’re trying to do overall with this bill before the House today, and that is provide Territorians with that choice, that individual and voluntary choice to access VAD services.”

Ms Zio said many people in her electorate of Fannie Bay, as well as many in other electorates, had contacted her to say they wanted the doctor gag clause removed from the legislation.

“It is our job as members to listen to the people that live in our electorates, not make decisions based on what we want, to make decisions based on what they’re asking us to do,” she said.

“And a lot of people in the Northern Territory are asking for this.

“I don’t want doctors encouraging people to die. I want doctors talking honestly with their patients about how they can live, how their suffering can be treated, what palliative care can be offered and, where clinically appropriate, what lawful choices are available at their end of life.

“There is an uncomfortable contradiction if we leave Clause 16 in place. We would be saying that we trust doctors to assess whether somebody is dying, but we don’t trust them to have a conversation. I can’t reconcile those two positions.”

CLP Member for Karama Brian O’Gallagher supported the removal of the gag clause and the 12-month prognosis restriction, which he described as “arbitrary”.

Following the CLP’s continual rejection of all amendments, Mr O’Gallagher offered a “compromise” late Thursday evening by recommending a two-year prognosis period inserted in the Act, while respecting already existing safeguards against coercion.

“I’m trying to get a compromise here. All I’m doing is saying, ‘is there a middle part here that recognises the need to keep the protections…but address those concerns from medical professionals’? That would be a good thing to do,” he said.

“It shows we’re listening. I think the majority of Territorians would welcome this compromise. As an Assembly, we could show there is some compromise, that we’ve listened to the community, we’ve listened to the health professionals. It’s being pragmatic.”

But that amendment was also shut down by the CLP majority.

Mr O’Gallagher surprisingly later suggested adding an amendment to the legislation that would see cause of death listed as “voluntary assisted dying” on terminal patients’ death certificates, which he unusually claimed would not affect insurance or superannuation payouts in any way.

Ms Zio later contradicted her previous position calling for the bill to be renamed, claiming she had changed her mind within a couple of hours and that the ‘Rights of the Terminally Ill’ should remain the name of the Act as “something to aspire to” when it is reviewed in three years.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro emerged from Parliament House late Thursday night for an ABC photo op with her CLP team, declaring the passing of the VAD legislation a “very surreal moment”.

“I remember as a young girl watching this debate unfold, watching the news of Marshall walking out of the Parliament,” she said.

“Tonight we have righted the greatest wrong in delivering this important reform for Territorians.

“The Finocchairo CLP Government is proud to have developed and delivered voluntary assisted dying so that Territorians have choice.”

Ms Finocchiaro and Ms Boothby have previously incorrectly claimed the 1995 ground-breaking legislation was introduced by the CLP. Mr Perron in fact introduced it as a private members bill and resigned as chief minister to ensure nobody could accuse him of forcing MLAs to vote along party lines.

Ms Boothby said in a statement last night that while she appreciated “not everyone has agreed” with everything in the bill, “what we saw was the best of the CLP – and of Territorians: robust, open, and respectful debate”.

She added NT Health will now be tasked with implementing the reforms “over the next 18 months, with a statutory review of the Act required three years after commencement”.