Mr. Michael Gaffney:

The first year I was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament was 2009. A person called Nick McKim, who is a member of the Green Party in Tasmania, introduced what he called the "dying with dignity" Bill to the Parliament. That came as a surprise to everybody. The Parliament then had a select committee of three Members of the Upper House and three Members of the Lower House to look at that Bill. It was only a 19-page Bill. I was, in those early days, in favour of a person's right to choose, but I found the legislation wanting and the committee could not recommend it. It, therefore, did not get passed in either the Upper House or the Lower House.

The next time, in 2013, the then premier, Lara Giddings, introduced a Bill again with Nick McKim in the Lower House. It was defeated by 13 votes to 12. Three years later, it was defeated by 16 votes to 8. The Bill was markedly different from 2009. In 2012 or 2013, the term "voluntary assisted dying" was introduced. In 2009, palliative care and the churches were quite aggressive in saying, "Hang on, we do not want people to die, but for people live on". They set up a media roadshow against the passage.

In 2013, it was just defeated. It did not even get to Committee Stage. It was further away in 2016. In 2017, I was asked whether I would carry the Bill in the Upper House if was brought back in 2019. I said that I would but looking at the numbers in the Lower House I said I did not think it was going to pass if it were introduced in the Lower House. I asked them to let me do it as a Private Member in the Upper House. Once they took that on board, they thought it was a great idea. I think they expected me to carry the Bill defeated in 2016. I said to them that was not going to be the case, because I needed to be confident that any Bill I introduced would be best suited to the Tasmanian people. I did a two-and-a-half-week tour of the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and the USA. I met with some random people. I got an international group together to be a support. I came back and worked on the Bill.

I put out a draft Bill, which was some 120 pages. The final Bill that went through was 190 pages. I was not precious about what the Bill included. I just wanted the best legislation. I have some really good examples of the forms I presented, where I got feedback from educators, residents, doctors, nurses, etc., about what the Bill should include. Eventually, the Bill was passed.