Why we need VAD in the NT
Darwin resident Gavin Perry, 74, was recently diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. He wants the option of VAD - except it's not legal in the NT.
Gavin's oncologist has warned that if his cancer metastasises, he will suffer and there is a risk of going blind.
“This melanoma might sit at the back of my eye for years. No one knows,’’ Gavin says.
“If there was VAD I wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. I wouldn't have to sit here listening to doctors talking about a horrible death. It’s so bloody simple really.”
Gavin is frustrated that the NT, where he has lived for 52 years, is lagging behind the rest of Australia on VAD laws.
“What are they afraid of? What’s stopping them?”
Gavin was born in the UK and spent extraordinary years in London in 1968 and '69 with "revolution in the air and Pink Floyd playing in the parks". Germaine Greer, Barry Humphries and Clive James were making their cultural mark and Gavin worked backstage at the famed Drury Lane Theatre before leaving home to find adventure.
Gavin ended up in Darwin in 1973, and decided to make it his home.
Gavin became a tropical horticulturalist, then a landscape gardener, revelling in the freedom and broad horizons of his adopted home.
In 1995 the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act passed, with the NT becoming the first jurisdiction to legalise euthanasia. Gavin listened to the heartfelt speeches presented in parliament and was in full support.
“Thirty years ago, I was 43 and thought we thought we were the most progressive place in the world,’’ he says.
“I really felt I was part of a compassionate, caring, modern society.”
The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was subsequently overturned by the commonwealth in a push led by Howard government backbencher Kevin Andrews. The rights for the territories to legislate for assisted dying were not restored until 2022. The ACT acted swiftly, passing VAD laws last year.
The NT government took the slower road, undertaking extensive community consultation that resulted in a 2024 report recommending drafting legislation. But progress then stalled under the new CLP government of Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro.
The Territory is now the only place in Australia to deny its residents end-of-life choice. Although the NT government, under community pressure, has promised a new inquiry into VAD due at the end of September, 2025.
The pace has been disappointingly slow for Gavin and many other Territorians who are facing serious illness.
“It feels awful to see we are the last place in Australia to pass VAD laws. I’m annoyed and I’m frustrated,’’ he says.
“Now I need VAD, I can’t get it.”
An uncertain future
Gavin’s rare ocular melanoma was diagnosed at the start of 2025 when his retina detached, and a tumour was found behind it.
For now, Gavin feels well and continues to enjoy his life but does not know if, or when, the tumour will metastasise.
He is having radiotherapy in Adelaide, as they don’t have the facilities to treat him in Darwin.
But he hates the idea of travelling back and forth to a different state, where he has no family and friends, for treatment which will “isolate me and possibly make me sick, and tired, of living”.
If he deteriorates suddenly he cannot have VAD in South Australia as he won’t meet the residency requirement for having lived in the state for 12 months. For Gavin, it’s a “painful irony” that the laws he supported in 1995 are entirely out of his reach.
“What an absurd situation…30 years after the law was passed, and then so spitefully overturned by people who felt affronted by it,’’ he says.
“It would make my decisions much easier if I knew that I could receive help to die if I was too ill to enjoy a quality of life anymore.’’
Too little, too late
Gavin is saddened that it may be too late for him to have VAD by the time laws are passed in the NT. He is focusing on quality of life, gardening, reading, painting and chatting with longtime friends.
Darwin is his home and he loves the city with a passion.
“It’s been fantastic to watch this community develop. We’ve got museums, a beautiful foreshore, you can drive anywhere in 15 minutes. It’s an amazing place!”
He urges the government not to delay any more.
“It could end now, this year, by passing this legislation in the Territory Parliament. It would also allow Voluntary Assisted Dying to be a nationally recognised law.
“And we could move on in this place to join a modern Australian society.”