Assisted-dying activists eye last state hurdle in NSW

Ink barely dry on Queensland’s new voluntary euthanasia act when activists turned to toughest nut of all to crack: NSW.

Breast cancer sufferer Susan Reilly doesn’t want children Liam, 11, left, Jacob, also 11, and Charlotte, 14, to see what she saw with her mother. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The ink was barely dry on Queensland’s new voluntary euthanasia act when activists turned to the toughest nut of all to crack: the nation’s largest and most socially conservative state, NSW, the only jurisdiction without the right to die enshrined in law.

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, the man who drove abortion reform through the state parliament two years ago, triggering a backbench revolt that threatened to put Gladys Berejiklian’s leadership to a vote in the Liberal party room, will introduce private member’s legislation for voluntary assisted dying on the day the famed “bear pit” is due to return from its Covid hiatus next month.

This is despite the bill being opposed by both the Premier and Labor leader Chris Minns.

As church leaders, campaigning doctors and right-to-life groups gear up for the most bruising battle over VAD since Victoria passed a benchmark law in 2017, Mr Greenwich will seek to appease the faith-based healthcare sector by giving private hospitals and hospices a conscientious out, a provision stripped from the legislation passed by the Queensland parliament on Thursday.

In a further bid to smooth passage of his bill, residents of church-aligned aged-care homes will be required to signal in advance any intention to apply for assisted dying to “facilitate open dialogue” with the provider, Mr Greenwich revealed.

He is hoping that these carrots, combined with the momentum from interstate for VAD, will persuade NSW Liberal and Labor MPs to defy the wishes of their leaders and vote in assisted dying for the terminally ill.

“When it comes to these types of contentious social reforms NSW does not like to lead, it likes to follow,” Mr Greenwich said.

“We didn’t succeed in being the first state to introduce VAD but we now have the opportunity to be the last, and the benefit is we are able to draw on the legislation that has been enacted in the other states.”

Take the 2017 gay marriage plebiscite. NSW registered the lowest Yes vote as a result of western Sydney electorates with big migrant populations delivering an emphatic thumbs down to an otherwise popular reform.

The VAD bill he characterises as being “conservative and compassionate”, less adventurous than the Queensland offering but an advance on the law enacted in Victoria four years ago, brings Mr Greenwich full circle.

Private member’s legislation co-sponsored by NSW Nationals’ elder Trevor Khan and backed by a cross-party group of MPs including Mr Greenwich went within one vote of passing the upper house of state parliament in 2017, not long before the breakthrough in Victoria.

In 2019 Mr Greenwich introduced another private bill, this time to decriminalise abortion, causing Ms Berejiklian political grief when a trio of Liberal conservatives rebelled and threatened to bring on a leadership spill, which they did not see through. Having authorised a conscience vote, Ms Berejiklian voted to pass the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill into law.

But some MPs believe her subsequent declaration to the party room that there would be no other conscience votes this term is open to interpretation. The Premier’s office did not respond to requests to clarify this.

In Brisbane, “exalted” by the passage of the Queensland ­legislation, advanced breast cancer sufferer and mother of three Susan Reilly said she couldn’t understand why the issue was still in doubt south of the state border.

“It just blows my mind that the politicians are still resisting this,” she said. “Religious belief aside, it’s not about them … it’s about people suffering right now.”

She watched her mother, Lesley, die of breast cancer and has undergone two punishing courses of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery after being diagnosed with the aggressive, triple-negative disease type.

If treatment ultimately failed, she would consider ending her life on her own terms.

“I don’t want my children to see what I did with Mum. If I can spare them that I will,” said Ms Reilly, 47.

Mr Greenwich said he would next week name up to 30 MPs from all sides who had agreed to cross-sponsor his VAD bill; he would give notice of his intention to bring on the legislation when state parliament returned on Tuesday, October 12, in the hope it could be introduced that sitting week.

Mr Khan, the deputy president of the Legislative Council, wished him luck.

“The Nats generally in NSW are supportive of action on voluntary assisted dying, but whether they will support Alex’s bill is another thing,” he said.

“Nevertheless, that solid bloc of support is still there. I think a major difference is that it has moved on in other states and some of the dire consequences that were predicted by various opponents have not come to pass … but the dynamic is not overwhelming by any means.”

Deputy government whip Lee Evans, another backer of the 2017 VAD legislation, said he had sought advice from Ms Berejiklian about the possibility of a new conscience vote but she had been “adamant” it would not happen before the next state election in 2023. “As such, I will wait until the bill is before parliament to comment on the matter,” he said.

Media identity Andrew Denton, co-founder of the Go Gentle Australia advocacy group credited with playing an important role in reviving the euthanasia debate and cajoling politicians in one state after another to support VAD law, rated the prospects of Mr Greenwich’s private member’s bill as “at best, 50-50”.

Mr Denton said: “I have always said NSW is the most difficult state. The significant thing against it are those historical undercurrents and neither leader supporting it.

“The significant thing for it is that after this week, NSW will be the only state without this legislation and as South Australian Health Minister Stephen Wade says, it becomes a matter of state’s equity. The people of NSW have every reason to ask how come we don’t have the same rights as the rest of Australia.”