Richard Lim

Richard Soon Huat Lim (23 December 1946—) is a retired Australian politician and doctor. 

Lim was born in Taiping, Malaysia, to Chinese parents. He was educated at a De La Salle Missionary school, St George's Institution, and in 1963 emigrated to attend De La Salle College in Queensland, with a view to studying medicine; he graduated from the University of Queensland in 1972. After working in Brisbane and Adelaide, Lim moved to Alice Springs in 1981, where he joined the Country Liberal Party (Lim, 1996).

Lim served as Alderman and Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs. In June 1994 he was elected to the seat of Greatorex in the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory; he held it for the CLP until his resignation in 2007 (Lim, 1996; Green, 2005).

Lim was not in agreement with Marshall Perron on voluntary euthanasia, saying in an interview in 1996:

"I believe that, when it comes down to euthanasia, there's three things. The right to kill one's self versus the right to have somebody else to kill you. The containment of euthanasia within very strict confines. I think that's going to be a problem. And ultimately, who really has the right to life? I think the slippery slope is something that we can't control. And that's my greatest fear for euthanasia. I mean if anybody wants to die, they can [...] whether they are learned physicians or Mr Joe Average, they can die if they want to [...] we'll never be able to legislate with enough safeguards." (Lim, 1996).

Green, A. (2005, June 28). Northern Territory Election 2005: Greatorex. ABC News Online. https://www.abc.net.au/elections/nt/2005/guide/grea.htm

Lim, R. (1996, September 23). Richard Lim interviewed by Diana Giese for the Post-war Chinese Australians oral history project [sound recording]. National Library of Australia Archives. https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-212642746/listen