Victorian government pushes ahead with assisted-suicide laws

Daniel Andrews will push ahead with laws to allow assisted suicide, while acknowledging the battle ahead.

Premier Daniel Andrews has outlined his take on laws that would allow assisted suicide.

Premier Daniel Andrews has clarified that his government will push ahead with laws to allow assisted suicide in Victoria in limited circumstances.

Despite not endorsing a recommendation to push ahead with law reform in the government’s written response to a committee, the Premier said today the government would have a bill ready to introduce in the second half of next year.

“It will be drafted by a panel of experts working with parliament counsel,’’ he said.

Mr Andrews – whose own views on assisted suicide have shifted after the death of his father this year – acknowledged the issue would divide the parliament and the community.

“There is no reason for this to be anything other than a civil, serious and sometime intense debate but it can also be a civil debate,’’ he said.

Mr Andrews said he would vote for the bill if it had the required safeguards, but MPs on his side would get a conscience vote. The Coalition is expected to take a similar approach, although Opposition Leader Matthew Guy does not support the change.

The laws, if passed, would make assisted suicide available to terminally patients of sound mind who were residents of Victoria.

Mr Andrews said opening it up for interstate or international residents would undermine support for the bill.

In its formal response to the committee report today it said the recommendation lacked “the legal, clinical and organisational detail about the implementation, practicalities and issues related to introducing an assisted dying framework”.

“Further significant and detailed work would need to be undertaken considering the implementation of this recommendation, including the role and membership of the proposed Implementation Taskforce and the Assisted Dying Review Board.

That work will be undertaken by the yet-to-be-identified panel of experts.

Even if the bill passes, the right that it creates to assisted suicide would not be available until 2019 as the health sector will be given 18 months to prepare for the new regime.