A Victorian senator who voted against territories being able to legislate for euthanasia four years ago said her father's death has changed her mind on the practice.
Jane Hume, the Liberal Party's spokesperson, wept as she discussed her father Steve's cancer diagnosis and later his decision to end his life.
Senator Hume said that her father's death under Victoria's voluntary assisted dying VAD laws had changed her views.
The Senate is considering removing a federal veto that prevents the ACT and the Northern Territory from debating euthanasia laws.
I once voted against this legislation, but I will be voting in favor of it today, Senator Hume told parliament.
When we make a decision, we say that we will walk a mile in another man's shoes.
Labor MPs Luke Gosling, from Darwin and Alice Payne, from Canberra, introduced the bill in July.
If passed, the bill would remove a 25 year old ban on the ACT and NT debating or passing VAD legislation.
In Australia, every state in Australia has euthanasia laws, after New South Wales became the last state to pass them in May.
The safeguards were almost insurmountable''
When the Senate blocked a similar attempt to restore the territories' rights four years ago, Senator Hume said the proposed laws were a slippery slope that would lead to wider use of assisted suicide than intended.
She pointed out that the territories did not, and should not, have the same rights as states.
They are different from states. She told the Senate in 2018 that they do not have the same rights.
She began her address by disagreeing with her Liberal colleague Alex Antic, who had earlier described the bill as one that would legalise suicide Senator Antic, and also mentioned the number of Victorians who had died under that state's VAD laws.
Senator Hume said that my father was in the statistics that Senator Antic read earlier.
She recalled her opposition to the bill in 2018 and her fear that euthanasia laws lacked adequate safeguards.
She said that someone vulnerable could be guilted into deciding to end their lives.
Senator Hume said that she had experienced cancer herself as cancer began to spread through her father's body by the end of 2019.
His exhaustive treatments had not prevented a terminal diagnosis, and he asked his doctor to arrange his death.
That was the beginning of a harrowing few months, Senator Hume said.
His doctor tried to get him out of it, but instead insisting that palliative care was a better option. When his father's condition deteriorated, Senator Hume called a Victorian parliamentary colleague who helped her father enact his wishes.
She said that the voluntary assisted dying safeguards in Victoria mean that no other family member can help organise, request or even discuss voluntary assisted dying in Victoria - it must be the patient themselves.
It's a good safeguard in theory, but a very frustrating one when you're the daughter of a stridently adamant single-minded but increasingly incapable father demanding your help.
Her father's wish was granted only after what Senator Hume described as interrogations of herself, her sister and her mother.
NT Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy also spoke in support of the bill, calling for equal rights for Canberrans and Northern Territorians.
Australians living in the territories should have the same rights as those in the states, she said.
Senator McCarthy said the existing restrictions on the territories were archaic and should be removed.
She encouraged senators to support the bill despite her hesitations over VAD legislation.
Penny Wong, the leader in the Senate, said she wanted the chamber to deal with the territory rights question once and for all before the end of the year, noting it is a conscience vote.