Jackie Trad makes ­euthanasia a poll issue

The right to die will be an election issue in Queensland after Jackie Trad warns voters should expect both Labor and LNP to take a stand on ­euthanasia.

Member for South Brisbane Jackie Trad speaking with Legacy chief executive Brendan Cox atWest End Coffee House in West End, Brisbane on Friday. Picture: Claudia Baxter

The right to die will be an election issue in Queensland after former deputy premier Jackie Trad warned that voters would expect both Labor and the Liberal Nat­ional Party to take a stand on ­euthanasia law reform ahead of the October 31 poll.

Queensland is the third state after Victoria and Western Australia to go down the path to legalise voluntary assisted dying, but the COVID-19 emergency has blown any chance the legislation could be put to state parliament before voters go to the polls.

A cross-party parliamentary committee in March found that terminally ill people should have the option to end their lives with the help of a doctor, and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called in the Queensland Law Reform Commission to prepare draft legislation. This reprised the process used by the Labor government to decriminalise abortion in Queensland in 2018.

The coronavirus onslaught bogged down the work, with Ms Palaszczuk now saying the commission is unlikely to report until next March.

That puts the polarising issue of voluntary assisted dying in play at an election that could go ­either way, according to the polls. The still-influential Ms Trad, a supporter of voluntary euthanasia, said voters deserved to know where the major parties stood.

“I have no doubt that as a government, we will do the same thing that we did with the termination of pregnancy and that is to respectfully consider the law reform commission’s suggestions and recommendations and draft legislation and present a bill,” she told The Australian. “Given how far we have come under Annas­tacia’s leadership on this issue, given that it is Labor Party policy, I think you can be confident Labor will … keep this process moving forward.

“What we don’t know is whether the LNP will do the same.”

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has promised that LNP MPs will have a conscience vote but her office would not say on Sunday whether VAD would be pursued if the party was restored to power. The issue is fraught for Ms Frecklington in light of the heat she took for allowing her MPs to vote their conscience on abortion law reform. LNP party policy remains opposed to VAD.

“It is unreasonable to speculate how MPs might vote before they have even viewed the legislation,” her spokesman said.

Ms Palaszczuk has spoken publicly of the impact on her of the “beautiful but horrific” death of her paternal grandfather, Leo, a survivor of World War II slave ­labour camps run by the Nazis and Soviets in Poland, without committing to a personal position on euthanasia.

Her spokesman said on Sunday: “The Premier believes the issue is intensely personal and deeply sensitive and will make her decision, having heard and considered all views, when the laws come before parliament.”

Ms Trad said VAD would be an election issue because those on both sides of the emotive debate would want firm signals from Labor and the LNP on what the parties would do in government.

“I do think there will be groups like Dying with Dignity and a whole range of others who really do want to get a clear understanding, given how far this issue has come, of what the major political parties will want to see happen when the Law Reform Commission reports,” she said.

“All of these people will want some sort of perspective or answer from the Labor Party or the LNP.”