A bill which would restore the right of the Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island to allow voluntary euthanasia is set to be introduced to the federal Senate this week.

Almost 20 years after the Howard government and then-backbencher Kevin Andrews introduced legislation which essentially cancelled the NT’s voluntary euthanasia laws, a group of federal politicians, calling themselves the “parliamentary friends of dying with dignity” are pushing to overturn it.

The restoring territory rights (dying with dignity) bill seeks to repeal the 1997 Euthanasia Laws Act, and to recognise the rights of the ACT, NT and Norfolk Island legislative assemblies to “make laws for the peace, order and good government of their territories, including the right to legislate for voluntary euthanasia”.

“While not afforded the same legislative rights in the constitution, the Northern Territory should be able to make substantial social decisions without the interference of Canberra politicians,” said NT Labor senator Nova Peris.

“Kevin Andrews and the Liberals in 1997, was an example of Canberra overreaching into Territory affairs. This bill seeks to fix that.”

Members of the cross-party group, which includes Peris, Liberal MP Sharman Stone, Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan, ACT senator Katy Gallagher and Greens leader Richard Di Natale, say the bill will show how many parliamentarians support the majority of Australians who support voluntary euthanasia, and will kickstart debate.

“Importantly, this legislation does not compel either jurisdiction to legalise voluntary euthanasia,” said Peris. “It simply allows the democratically elected parliament of the NT the ability to do so if they chose.”

Gallagher said the federal intervention into territory rights was “fundamentally unfair.”

“We are given the right to run education, to run the hospitals, to run child protection to run the justice system, to run a jail, we are given all these rights and no one has complained around that from the commonwealth that self-government hasn’t worked and yet when it comes to one issue, which is inextricably linked to every single one of us, we are banned from having that discussion.”

Di Natale dismissed suggestions the bill went against calls for improved palliative care in Australia, and said the two issues were “absolutely complementary”.

“People in palliative care often are very anxious about what their final days might look like and this legislation provides them with much comfort,” he said.

“There would be no one in this [parliamentary] group who would argue against a greater investment in palliative care and it is absolutely critical to ensure that people who are in their final months have the care and support they need. We are unambiguously supportive of palliative care and greater support for that area but recognise that is not the full answer.”

Last week the Labor party formally acknowledge its federal members will have a conscience vote on the issue, as they did for the 1997 bill.

The NT chief minister, Adam Giles, said on Tuesday if the bill passed he would be “very happy and very keen to see euthanasia brought back”.

Labor opposition leader, Michael Gunner, said he would consider a conscience vote on the matter if his party won the NT election in August.