After fighting for the right to legalise voluntary assisted dying for almost 30 years, Judy Dent tries not to get her hopes up too much these days.
Her husband, Bob — who had terminal prostate cancer — was the first of just four people who died from a legal, voluntary lethal injection in the Northern Territory, in the nine months it was legal, before it was banned.
“He wanted to be the first,” she said.
“He just felt that it was the right thing to do, the right thing to be able to do, so he wanted to show what was able to be done.”
Australia's two territories, the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory, are the nation's only jurisdictions where voluntary assisted dying is banned.
Ms Dent said the latest push to repeal a law which prevents the territories from passing their own legislation on the issue gives her hope change might not be far off.
Northern Territory enacted world's first assisted dying laws
The world's first voluntary assisted dying legislation came into law in 1995 when the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act passed through the Northern Territory legislative assembly by just one vote.
But in 1996, federal Liberal MP Kevin Andrews put forward a bill — passed by the Commonwealth in 1997 — which undid this legislative change and prevented the NT and Australian Capital Territory from legalising euthanasia in the future.
The NT's bill was put forward by then-Chief Minister Marshall Perron, and one of the thirteen people who voted in favour of it was then-cabinet minister Daryl Manzie.
Mr Manzie has not forgotten the pain of the moment when it was all undone.
"I was angry — not on the basis of that legislation — but the fact that the Federal government had the audacity to overturn a decision of territory people and that's still the situation at the moment," he told the ABC.
Almost 30 years on, his views have not changed.
"I find it appalling, I find it obnoxious," he said.
"Why should people living in another part, another area who aren't affected by legislation, interfere with people's right to make decisions?"
Minor parties have attempted to revoke the "Andrews Bill" three times, but a conscience vote has resulted in them all being knocked back.
There have also been private bills — including from members of the major parties — which never even made it to the parliament floor.
'Not all pain can be alleviated'
Someone else who has been in the battle to restore the Territories' rights is the Council On the Ageing Northern Territory's president, Sue Shearer.
Like Ms Dent, she thinks this most recent bill — which Labor backbenchers Alicia Payne, from Canberra, and Luke Gosling, from Darwin plan to table at the next parliamentary sitting — feels different to the others.
"Now with every other state having that particular legislation, it's the right time and the prime time for other members of parliament to vote, to repeal that legislation, to give us back that right."
Ms Shearer said surveys conducted by the council had demonstrated widespread support for voluntary assisted dying to be legalised again — with 78 per cent of senior Territorians surveyed in 2018 saying they supported it being legal.
Former hospice volunteer Kerry Thomas said it was an option she would like to have for herself when the time comes.
"I've seen a lot of people who have died but have gone through hell but didn't want to go through hell and shouldn't have had to," she said.
"Not all pain can be alleviated and not all pain is physical either.
Conscience vote opens possibility of defeat
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has indicated he wants his party to proceed with a conscience vote, meaning Labor members won't have to follow a party line as is tradition.
Among the Federal representatives from the NT and ACT, all but one has stated clear support for overturning the bill — Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Price.
Ms Price said before the election that she would not support the change.
"I don't trust this [Northern] Territory government to make any wise decisions on behalf of Territorians, I am certainly not going to trust them to make decisions over our vulnerable Indigenous Australians," she said.
However, this week a spokeswoman for Ms Price said she was "busy engaging with Territorians on the bill."
One Labor MP who was in 2016 accused of preventing assisted dying laws is Tony Burke.
Mr Gosling said he was hopeful his party would get behind the push to afford territories the same privilege as states.
“I am confident of getting the overwhelming majority of support. I hope Tony Burke supports us Territorians, because we do not need advice for assisting thinking about these issues,” he said.
What happens if the Andrews Bill is repealed?
The ACT has never legislated voluntary assisted dying so there’s no previous laws they can fall back on.
However, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has previously expressed his support for the issue.
Although the Northern Territory already has voluntary dying legislation, NT Attorney-General Chansey Paech said it would need to be re-written and modernised.
"We are working on contemporising that legislation to make sure that it's in line. Best practice standards have changed a lot since then," he said.
Ms Shearer said she hopes the NT government will begin consulting with the community about what that legislation would look like as soon as possible.
Although she's suffered her fair share of disappointments over the years, Ms Dent remains determined and "forever hopeful".
"I've got to outlast them," she said.
"I've got to get this through."
