As many have already pointed out, Kevin Andrews was a man of deep faith and conviction and leaves behind a legacy of dedicated service to Australia.
When I heard the news of his death, my thoughts focused on a singular aspect of this legacy, the “Andrews bill.”
As many readers would already be aware, in 1995 the Northern Territory became the first jurisdiction anywhere in the world to pass a law allowing euthanasia. The law was in operation for nine months, with four people using its provisions to access lethal drugs to end their lives.
In 1996, Kevin Andrews, a Liberal backbencher who had only been in parliament five years, tabled a private members’ bill aimed at using the federal parliament’s power under section 122 of the constitution to make laws relating to the territories to override the Northern Territory’s euthanasia law. The bill provided that neither the Northern Territory nor the Australian Capital Territory were competent to pass a law that would permit euthanasia or assisted suicide in any form and any attempt to do so would be ineffective.
He was successful, and on 24 March 1997, the Senate narrowly voted to pass the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 and the Northern Territory’s euthanasia regime came to an immediate end. History records that Philip Nitschke was so enraged by the bill’s passage that he burnt a copy of it at the door of parliament house. Despite the law now having a name—the Euthanasia Laws Act—it continues to be referred to as the Andrews bill to this day.
As I thought about the Andrews bill, I began to try and calculate how many lives it saved.
Almost 28 years after its passage, the Northern Territory still does not have a euthanasia law, even though the federal parliament overturned the Andrews bill in 2023.
Even if the death rate had continued as it did in the first year of operation (four deaths in nine months), then the Andrews bill saved 150 lives in the Northern Territory alone. This is a conservative estimate because, as has been the experience in other places with euthanasia laws—including all Australian states—euthanasia deaths tend to increase year on year. The real number of lives saved in the Northern Territory would likely be many hundreds.
While the ACT has passed its euthanasia law, it has not yet come into effect because such a law has only been possible for just over a year. Had it not been for the Andrews bill, one might imagine that the ACT would have had euthanasia for more than a decade now, with hundreds more deaths occurring.
I also believe that the remainder of the Australian states would have implemented euthanasia laws earlier if not for the Andrews bill because, if euthanasia had been available in the Northern Territory since 1997, it is unlikely that other Australian states would have waited more than 20 years to do the same.
Given there are around 3500 people who have died across Australia in the five years since Victoria’s law first came into effect, I think we can confidently estimate that thousands more deaths would have occurred in the states if not for the Andrews bill. Indeed, I would not be surprised if the Andrews bill meant that Australia was spared some 10,000 euthanasia deaths in the last 25 years, all because of one man and his bill.
There are many other pro-life, pro-family aspects to the legacy of Kevin Andrews, but even if the Andrews bill was the only thing he ever did, it would have been a political career well spent. I can imagine Kevin not only being greeted by at the pearly gates by St Peter or embraced by the Lord Jesus as a “good and faithful servant,” but also being warmly and joyfully welcomed by those who might otherwise have taken their own lives if not for the Andrews bill. What a legacy!
May God grant Kevin eternal rest, and grant us many more politicians in his mould.