Mrs DE-ANNE KELLY(11.13 p.m.) —The member for Menzies (Mr Andrews) has said that legislative assemblies can legislate already for the matters that have been raised in the amendments moved by the member for Adelaide (Ms Worth). That might well be so—as I understand it, many states have already done so—but these matters have come before us tonight as amendments and it therefore behoves us to consider them.

Section C is not euthanasia. In fact, it is allowable at present. There is no difficulty with an agent or a relative authorising some one to make decisions about removing burdensome or onerous treatment. However, part D is quite different.

Mr Speaker, you would be aware that, whereas Australia has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world, regional areas, such as where I live, have the highest. I personally know two people who recently took their lives. I do not want to make this a personal address, and I will not do so, except to say that we have a great responsibility as a federal parliament to think very carefully about what we say, particularly to young people. What we do can give a legal sanction, or it can be educative or punitive.

If I support these amendments, I believe that I would be, certainly by inference, encouraging at least a covert indifference to a very terrible social difficulty that we have. It would be a dreadful neglect of those young people in our community who despair over their lives. We as a government have just put $19 million towards suicide prevention, something that I am very proud of. I hope that we are able to do something through that measure to reduce the level of suicide in regional and rural areas.

I certainly was not aware when we were debating this in the Main Committee that attempted suicide was one of the issues that was going to be canvassed. I do not feel that I have had sufficient time to look at this or that the parliament has been able to consider it and its ramifications. I certainly have great trouble with these amendments.