Thanks to Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws, Jane Hume’s devoutly Catholic father was able to have a peaceful, painless death. Now she wants people in the territories to also have that right.
It is a change of heart for the Liberal senator, who voted against a 2018 bill for territory rights that would give the Northern Territory and ACT the power to legalise voluntary assisted dying.
In an emotional speech on Wednesday Hume said she understood and respected the opinions of some of her Coalition colleagues who opposed the current push for territory rights, including those who felt it was morally wrong to allow people to die by assisted suicide.
“I once felt in my heart that it was wrong too. I once voted against this legislation. But I will be voting in favour of it today,” she said.
“Having held the hand of the person that I deeply loved as he died peacefully, as he died painlessly, as he died willingly, and in the manner in which he wanted – in the manner in which he had always wanted and at the time of his choosing – I now feel very, very different. It was, truly, a beautiful death.
“To those Australians who live in the territories… I say to you, who am I to deny you the choice to leave this earth in the same beautiful way as did my father Steve.”
The Senate is debating another territory rights bill, which would remove the restrictions on the ACT and the NT which prevent them from passing legislation to allow voluntary assisted dying.
Laws that legalise voluntary assisted dying have been passed in all states, but the territories have been prevented from enacting their own laws by a 1997 private member’s bill introduced by former Liberal MP Kevin Andrews.
ACT senator David Pocock had been concerned the lack of parliamentary sitting days remaining this year would push a vote on the bill into next year, potentially giving time for the ‘no’ vote to gain momentum, but the government’s Senate leader Penny Wong said there would be a vote on the bill before Christmas.
Both major parties have allowed members a rare conscience vote and Hume said her speech was not about trying to direct her colleagues on how they should vote.
“It’s deeply personal. But my deeply personal experience has dramatically changed my position on voluntary assisted dying,” she said after delivering her speech.
Hume said her parents had both been committed to “exiting on their own terms”.
As her father Steve wasted away from cancer that commitment became imperative. COVID hit when her father was finally approved for assisted dying, but was told he needed to wait three weeks to be shown what he needed to do.
“When dad heard that he had to live for another three weeks, he cried,” Hume said.
The Victorian senator said her family were lucky to be able to host a “living wake” before lockdowns were introduced, inviting friends and family over to drink the best champagne and wines from his cellar.
On the appointed day two years ago, Hume took her children to say goodbye before her father took the medicine.
Then, with Hume, her sister and her mother sitting with him, Steve “very calmly very peacefully, very quietly died.”
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