Poll finds Queensland backs voluntary assisted dying and changes to euthanasia laws

ALMOST 80 per cent of Queenslanders support legalising voluntary-assisted dying for the terminally ill, an exclusive new poll has found.

Assisted dying campaigners David Muir, Andrew Denton, Jos Hall, and Everald Compton, who have been working for change on euthanasia laws in Queensland. Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

ALMOST 80 per cent of Queenslanders support legalising voluntary-assisted dying for the terminally ill, an exclusive new poll has found.

The ReachTEL Poll, conducted on Wednesday for the Clem Jones Group and Dying with Dignity, also found the same number supported a parliamentary inquiry into VAD and end of life care in general. The two groups are continuing their campaign for law changes in Queensland after Victoria passed VAD laws.

Clem Jones Trust chairman David Muir said the ReachTel poll showed the community was calling for change. It found about 57 per cent of Queenslanders strongly supported, and 22 per cent supported, VAD for the terminally ill.

Only 17 per cent opposed VAD while about 4 per cent were unsure. Support was high among voters of all parties, from Labor to One Nation.

About 80 per cent said they would personally like the option of VAD if they were terminally ill and considered their suffering intolerable.

“The research sends a clear message to all parties and all MPs in the Queensland Parliament. Queenslanders support voluntary assisted dying and they want action taken now to establish a cross-party parliamentary inquiry that will deliver it,” Mr Muir said.

He said a similar inquiry had led to new laws in Victoria while one in WA had recommended the Government draft new laws there.

“I have no doubt the outcome will be the same here in Queensland once our State Parliament holds an inquiry and MPs can hear all sides of the argument and sift fact from myth and fiction.”

Australian scientist David Goodall, 104, at a press conference on the eve of his assisted suicide in Switzerland in May. Picture: AFP/Sebastien Bozon

Dying With Dignity Queensland president Jos Hall said the polling was in line with sentiment around the country.

“The sooner the Queensland Parliament starts examining this issue and takes action, the sooner the suffering of so many people will end.”

The Queensland Labor Party’s Left circulated a motion ahead of this weekend’s conference calling for an inquiry before the end of the year.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has not ruled out the move, acknowledging it is a sensitive issue. But she has previously indicated she wants the Parliament to tackle abortion decriminalisation laws first with those changes set down for debate in October.

The Left motion calls for the conference to “affirm its belief that voluntary euthanasia and assisted dying, in addition to comprehensive palliative care options, should be legally available as an option for a person of sound mind suffering from a terminal illness that has diminished their quality of life to the extent that the person requests termination of their life”.