Territory rights: Federal MPs to vote on overturning Andrews bill

The Canberra Times understands a vote on Luke Gosling and Alicia Payne's push to overturn the so-called Andrews bill will be held in the House of Representatives after 9am.

It comes after two days of debate following the introduction of the private members' bill to the Federal Parliament on Monday morning.

Supporters are confident the legislation will pass through the lower house, but are expecting a much tougher fight in the Senate - where the fate of the Andrews bill will be decided.

The vote comes after a senior Liberal frontbencher referenced Nazi Germany's systematic murder of disabled people before the Holocaust to argue against restoring the rights of the ACT and Northern Territory to legalise assisted dying.

But Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser conceded he might be fighting a "losing battle" in trying to defend the John Howard-era Andrews bill, which quashed the Northern Territory's world-first assisted dying regime and blocked the territories from legislating on the subject in the future.

Another Coalition MP, former Nationals minister Andrew Gee, declared late on Tuesday that he would support the bill, labelling it "absurd" that ACT residents had fewer rights than their neighbours across the border in NSW.

Labor supporters have appealed to politicians across the parliament to set aside any personal reservations about assisted dying and treat the bill as a question of democratic rights.

But conservative opponents have argued the legislation is fundamentally about euthanasia, casting any suggestions otherwise as misleading and dishonest.

A long-time opponent of assisted dying, Mr Leeser used his speech to parliament's federation chamber late on Tuesday afternoon to claim the Payne-Gosling bill was seeking to "rip apart the values that our society stood for".

"This bill endorses no other right then the right to kill fellow territorians," he said.

Mr Leeser said the evidence of "life-affirming culture" - which was apparent in policies to prevent road deaths or through decisions to protect lives during the COVID-19 pandemic - was disappearing "inch by inch and soul by soul" in Australia.

The Berowra MP, who is Jewish, then referenced Nazi Germany's program of euthanasing sick and disabled people in the years before the Holocaust to warn against assisted dying regimes.

"The decision that we're making with this [Payne-Gosling] bill cripples our culture," he said.

"I cannot forget that the most civilized and enlightened society in Europe, which wiped out 6 million of my people in the Holocaust, began their program of industrial murder by euthanizing vulnerable disabled people thought to be in pain.

"I cannot in good conscience know this history and say nothing."

Mr Leeser, who is also the opposition's Indigenous affairs spokesman, argued Indigenous Australians were more vulnerable when assisted dying was legalised because of the disproportionally high rates of poor health in their communities.

The Canberra Times has been calling for the Andrews bill to be repealed as part of its Our Right to Decide campaign.

Mr Gee, along with Bass MP Bridget Archer and new Hughes MP Jenny Ware, are among a minority of Coalition members who are set to support the Payne-Gosling bill.

Mr Gee, who is now the Coalition's territories spokesman, said he started contemplating end-of-life choices after being diagnosed with stage three melanoma in 2010.

He said he decided "without doubt" that he wanted to be able to have the ability to choose when to end his life.

"While I appreciate that there are a wide range of opinions on this issue, my strong view remains that every Australian should have the right to choose the time of their own death in certain, controlled circumstances," he said.

Mr Gee's colleague and former leader Barnaby Joyce spoke strongly against the bill, which he maintained was fundamentally about assisted dying.

"I have a very strong philosophical position, I've never hidden it. I don't think that anybody has the right to kill another person," Mr Joyce said.

Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh become the first Labor MP to publicly state their opposition to the bill, while Liberal Rowan Ramsey also confirmed he would vote no.

Labor MP for Blair Shayne Neumann and Greens MP for Ryan Elizabeth Watson-Brown said they would support the bill.