Fears ‘bad faith’ MPs will stall NSW voluntary euthanasia law

The NSW voluntary euthanasia Bill’s supporters may well have the upper house numbers but fear “bad faith” delays by opponents will delay its progress.

Greg Piper has warned of “bad faith” amendments to the voluntary euthanasia Bill.

Supporters of the NSW voluntary euthanasia Bill are confident they now have the numbers in the upper house but fear “bad faith” tactical delays by opponents will mean no one seeking to use the law to end their life will be able to do so until 2024 at the earliest.

At least 22 of the 42 MPs eligible to vote in the Legislative Council have spoken in favour of the Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation but amendments from members opposed could stall passage of the Bill next month.

NSW is now the only Australian jurisdiction without the right to die enshrined in law.

The Bill is next due to be debated in May, but only two Wednesdays are available to hear MPs who still wish to speak on the Bill and to deal with the expected swath of amendments meaning passage of the Bill could be delayed until June.

By the time minimum wait periods and administrative processes are taken into account following a mandatory 18 month “implementation phase” from the date of assent it would be January 2024 before anyone could use the scheme.

The 18-month period is designed to allow NSW Health time to the organise the scheme and train doctors and other professionals in the onerous requirements of the legislation.

Bill co-sponsor and independent MP Greg Piper said: “Some amendments will be well intentioned and others could be characterised as bad faith amendments. They will be designed to make the legislation effectively unusable and personally I think that’s unconscionable.

“Our concern is that some of those amendments even if they’re well intended, just make it that much harder; this is already the most conservative such legislation out of any of the Australian states and we don’t want this so difficult to access that it’s just meaningless.

“I’m still hopeful that we’ll see this to the end at the end of our second week in May but anything can happen – people can filibuster.”

A bid by Adam Searle MLC to allocate an extra day to deal with the Bill was rejected. Picture: James Gourley

A request by Labor MLC Adam Searle, a co-sponsor of the Bill, to allocate an extra day to ensure the Bill could be dealt with, was rejected by the government.

“I think it’s too much to hope that there wouldn’t be amendments that opponents of the Bill will no doubt propose in a further narrowing legislation,” said Mr Searle. “The biggest issue so far has actually been getting parliamentary time allocated, so if there’s a significant body of amendments, as I expect there may be, then obviously that problem would be renewed.

“I had asked the government to allocate Fridays – the answer was no.

“I’m saying let’s have the discussion, let’s allocate the time – and if we can’t do it in the time we have, let’s make more.”

Independent member for Sydney Alex Greenwich, who introduced the Bill, had to negotiate 42 separate amendments to the Bill from lower house members and is hoping to be able to deal with at least some before the May session.

“I’m ready to work well with all of my colleagues but I think history shows that we may experience a large bulk of amendments, including those that were voted down in the Legislative Assembly,” he said.

Supporters of the Bill expect strong opposition from some members, including Labor MLC Greg Donnelly, a fervent opponent of the Bill, over issues such as the right of residential aged-care homes to deny those in their care access to the scheme.

“Proposing amendments can be very effective because you can take up a lot of time doing that; there’s a lot of procedural votes he can call that can slow things down,” said one MP. Mr Donnelly did not respond to requests for comment from The Australian.

The Bill has 28 co-sponsors across both houses.