Voluntary assisted dying advisory panel

The Honourable Vicki O’Halloran AO CVO was sworn in as the 22nd Administrator of the Northern Territory (NT) on 31 October 2017 and remained in office until 30 January 2023.

As Administrator, Her Honour represented the Crown in right of the NT.

She was born in Tasmania and moved to Darwin in 1989, where she has resided for the past 34 years.

As Administrator, Her Honour valued the importance of supporting and promoting the Territory and Territorians. She was patron to 60 organisations, and actively supported the development of emerging Territory leaders.

Prior to her appointment as Administrator, Her Honour was chief executive officer of Somerville Community Services. She has been a member of a range of boards and committees locally and nationally.

Her Honour was chair of National Disability Services NT, serving as national president of National Disability Services from 2012 to 2015, and chair of the NT Government Ministerial Advisory Council on Disability Reform.

In December 2022, Her Honour was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) by His Majesty The King.

Duncan McConnel SC is a Northern Territory (NT) barrister practising at William Forster Chambers.

His practice areas include insurance and compensation, and commercial litigation. He has recently expanded his practice areas to include mediation and arbitration.

Mr McConnel has studied and practised law exclusively in the NT, and was one of the first lawyers in the NT to have completed his degree in Darwin.

He practised as a litigation solicitor for 15 years including as a partner in one of the Territory’s leading firms, before being called to the bar.

In 2009, Mr McConnel joined William Forster Chambers in Darwin as a barrister.

In 2015, he served as the president of the Law Council of Australia.

Previously, he had served as an executive director of the Law Council for 5 years. During his time at the Law Council, Duncan was instrumental in highlighting the issue of indigenous imprisonment.

Duncan was appointed chair of the NT Legal Aid Commission in 2019 and re-appointed in 2022.

He is also the current president of the NT Bar Association.

Sue Shearer joined COTA NT as the organisation's chief executive officer in February 2017.

Six years later, Mrs Shearer’s role has grown exponentially as COTA NT's advocacy and opinion is increasingly sought by seniors and stakeholders in the NT.

In 2019, she was awarded Darwin's Citizen of the Year for speaking out for those who need a voice.

As the spokesperson for COTA NT, Mrs Shearer is frequently contacted by NT and national media to comment on both federal and local issues affecting Territory seniors.

Mrs Shearer’s achievements include:

• implementing new initiatives such as NT Grandparents Day and NT Seniors Voice
• consulting with the NT Government to implement a new and improved concession scheme for seniors
• acquiring management of the NT Seniors Card to help reduce the cost of living
• acquiring federal programs in access to aged care, health and wellbeing and advocacy and support for multicultural NT seniors.

Ursula Raymond has been on the sidelines of the voluntary assisted dying debate since the 1980s when the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 was passed.

She was an ABC journalist/broadcaster and interviewed the-then member for Arnhem, the late Mr Wes Lanhupuy, for his view of this law. This was broadcast on the national ABC AM program.

As a ministerial adviser to federal parliamentarians from the Northern Territory (NT), Ms Raymond also worked with the retired former NT chief minister, Marshall Perron, on a more recent attempt to re-enact voluntary assisted dying laws.

Ms Raymond is Darwin born, raised and educated. She also has a Bachelor of Arts from Melbourne University.

As the Deputy Treaty Commissioner for the NT from June 2019 to June 2022, she led community consultations with Aboriginal Territorians on a treaty, land rights, tourism and arts practices.

Dr Devaki Monani is currently a lecturer in social work at Charles Darwin University (CDU). She teaches ethics, rights and social justice.

Dr Monani is the chair of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs (2023-2025).

In 2020, Dr Monani was awarded the Dean’s Award for excellence in teaching for the subject Leadership in Social Policy (2020) in the Master of Social work program at CDU.

She contributes regularly to the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council Australia, MOSAIC magazine on topics related to multicultural communities in the NT.

Dr Monani is also a senior research fellow (adjunct) at the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria University and honorary fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research (NT).

Wendy Morton arrived in the Northern Territory (NT) more than 25 years ago from Queensland.

She worked in the disability sector for the first few years. She was then employed for 7 years as the disability discrimination advocate and outreach worker at Darwin Community Legal Service.

Ms Morton spent the next 14 years as the executive director of the NT Council of Social Service (NTCOSS). She left this role late in 2019 and did some consulting before becoming the NT Community Housing Registrar in 2021.

She has recently been a member of different advisory groups and panels including:

• Team Territory
• the Department of Health Governance and Assurance Committee
• the Housing Appeals Board
• Territory Workforce Advisory Group.

Ms Morton is passionate about the NT and grateful for the opportunities she has had over many years. She acknowledges living and working on the land of the Larrakia people.

Dr. Geetanjali (Tanji) Lamba is a medical doctor and public health registrar at NT Health. She is also a lecturer at the Menzies School of Health Research.

Her professional journey reflects a strong commitment to healthcare and policy.

Since 2020, Tanji has been actively immersed in voluntary assisted dying (VAD) implementation research at Monash University.

Prior to her role in the Northern Territory, she contributed her expertise at the World Health Organization's Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research.

Tanji's clinical expertise lies in anaesthetics and intensive care, providing her with invaluable insights into clinical medicine and end-of-life care.

This practical experience has been complemented by her extensive involvement in various teaching, research and action projects in health policy.

She has a strong interest in developing evidence-informed health policy and fostering open dialogues that respect diverse perspectives and values.

She is committed to leveraging her expertise to assist in the creation of a robust legal framework for VAD in the NT.

Dr Christine Sanderson is a palliative medicine physician. Before she began to work in this field, she did a sociology degree and a Masters in Public Health.

She trained in palliative medicine in Adelaide, and then worked in Sydney for many years, where she was involved in research and teaching.

She is currently on the Council of the Australian New Zealand Society for Palliative Medicine.

Dr Sanderson has now been based in Central Australia and working on Arrernte country for the last 5 years.

She is a hands-on palliative care doctor, one who is still learning despite more than 20 years in palliative medicine.

She understands that dying people and their families need to be able to have real choices about their care, good information and good communication. She also understands that they need to feel safe and heard at such a difficult time.

Dr Kane Vellar is a medical practitioner who works as a consultant psychiatrist and specialist with an interest in palliative medicine with NT Health.

He was an inaugural graduate from the 2014 Flinders University Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP) with a Doctor of Medicine. In 2021, he became the Northern Territory’s first wholly trained hospital-based specialist from the NTMP.

As clinical associate professor with Charles Darwin University Menzies School of Medicine, he is passionate about supporting the First Nations Pathway and Program Success working group.

Dr Vellar is proud of his Indigenous heritage (Palawa nation) and is a member of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. He holds an Associate Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and is keen to further advocacy in his areas of interest. This includes rural psychiatry, psycho-oncology and palliative medicine.

Dr Vellar holds a Master of Psychiatry from the University of Melbourne and was the recipient of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists’ Scholarly Project award in 2022. His research interests focus on clinical audits to improve safe prescribing practices, drug monitoring and patient outcomes.