Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying laws set to pass in historic vote
Voluntary-assisted dying laws will pass in Queensland today with a clear majority supporting the Bill, despite three Labor MPs revealing they would be voting against it.
QLD Politics
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Voluntary assisted dying will be made legal in Queensland this afternoon following a historic vote in the Queensland parliament.
The parliament has voted in favour of the Bill’s second-reading 61-30 - which will indicate the final vote this afternoon.
Amendments to the Bill proposed by Deputy Opposition Leader David Janetzki are now being considered, but they are expected to be defeated.
There are more than 100 amendment clauses to be debated before the parliament votes on the final incarnation of the Bill this afternoon - which Mr Janetski accepts “will pass”.
Labor MPs Joe Kelly, Linus Power and the Premier’s Assistant Minister Bart Mellish will vote against voluntary assisted dying.
Opposition MPs Michael Crandon and Mark Boothman supported the legislation along with eight of their LNP colleagues.
The victory for assisted dying advocates comes despite three Labor MPs revealing for the first time they would not be supporting the Bill, including nurse Joe Kelly.
The Greenslopes MP said he hoped no one ever accused him of not caring, detailing harrowing experiences with patients.
“You don’t hold the hand of a 14-year-old dying from Leukaemia at 2 in the morning,” he said.
“You don’t spend days with people who’ve attempted and failed suicide only to recover enough to know they’re going to die in a few days.”
At times emotional, Mr Kelly, whose mother is battling Parkinson’s disease, said a dignified death could be provided with palliative care.
“Under this legislation if those words are uttered to me in the form of a request of VAD I have only one option, to refer the patient on,” he said.
“It is my strong professional view, based on years of experience, education, research and numerous conversations over 33 years with nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals in real life and death situations … it is my real professional view that we can provide dignified death when you provide good palliative care,” he said.
But he said despite increases in funding, “We just don’t have good palliative care”.
Logan MP Linus Power, who listened to the entire debate in the house on Tuesday and before he spoke on Wednesday, was the second government MP to oppose it, declaring the Bill a “drastic policy action to take”.
“If we are to take such a step we must do so for an extraordinary reason,” he said.
Mr Power asked multiple oncologists and palliative care experts if they could predict six to 12 months out if a patient would face “a bad death” and they told him they were unable to do that.
“A specialist told me ‘diseases are hard to predict and doctors can make mistakes’,” he said.
Aspley MP Bart Mellish also opposed the Bill, saying inadequate palliative care could not be separated from VAD.
VAD has received support from all government ministers who have spoken on the debate to date.
Trembling and in tears, Small Business Minister Di Farmer recalled the gut-wrenching experience watching her mother “wither away” after being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
In a highly emotive speech, Ms Farmer described her mother as the “brightness of life itself” who kept a growth on her body hidden as she continued to focus on others.
The Minister said her mother, a nurse, knew the type of death approaching and “made it clear she wanted to die at home”.
With stories of people “gasping and moaning” as they approach death, Education Minister Grace Grace said the time was right to end the suffering.
Ms Grace, who watched her brother-in-law, mother, and father suffer in their final days, said while the Bill will “not result in additional death in Queensland, it will mean a lot less suffering”.
The senior government minister dismissed Opposition amendments which she says “tinkers” with the Bill after an extensive Queensland Law Reform Commission Review and public inquiry.
One of the few Opposition frontbenchers to support the proposal, Buderim MP Brent Mickelberg said the LNP’s charter of “freedom of citizens to choose their own way of living” should be extended to those facing death.
“Why should the government deny someone the opportunity to hasten their own death so they do not suffer in their final days,” he said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk spoke of how she regretted not helping her grandmother in her final days and the loss of her uncle as she insisted her government would not be “tampering” with the Bill.
The Premier, who will support the laws, said her views had been formed by the people of Queensland.
“He (Uncle) had the best possible care in the hospital but I think he would have preferred a more dignified death,” she said.
“With my Nanna, my mother rang me this morning and asked when I was speaking on this Bill and said can you please remember Nanna.
“During the final time in her life she (grandmother) rang me and said I’m in pain and I actually couldn’t go and see her because I had work, and to this day I will always regret not going and helping her during that time.
“She was crying out in pain during the last 48 hours but she lived a good life to 95.”
The Premier said the government would not amend the Bill because “we let the experts get that Bill right”.
Eligible Queenslanders would be able to access VAD from January 2023.
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