Last-minute window for Queensland euthanasia law changes

Annastacia Palaszczuk has left the door open for changes to Queensland’s euthanasia legislation in the face of a campaign from ­religious hospitals to be exempt.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is under pressure to offer religious hospital greater power to opt out of the assisted dying scheme. Picture: Dan Peled

Annastacia Palaszczuk has left the door open for last-minute changes to Queensland’s euthanasia legislation in the face of a continuing campaign from ­religious hospitals to be exempt.

Laws giving terminally ill ­people the right to end their own lives will be debated and voted on in Queensland’s unicameral parliament next week.

A parliamentary committee in August green-lit the bill, which is certain to pass on the anticipated votes of Labor and Greens MPs, making Queensland the fifth Australian state to legalise ­assisted dying.

The churches operating the state’s biggest private hospitals and nursing homes have been privately lobbying the Premier to deliver on a promised right of “institutional conscientious ­ob­ject­ion”, saying Queensland will be the only jurisdiction in Aus­tralia to force private facilities to participate in the scheme in certain situations.

In June, Liberal-governed South Australia became the first state to extend the right to object from individual doctors to faith-based hospitals, allowing them to refuse to authorise or permit “any part” of the VAD process.

Under Queensland’s legislation, this right can be over­ridden when transferring the patient to another facility would cause “unnecessary suffering”, meaning private facilities will be forced to allow outside doctors on site to assess patients and ­potentially administer the end-of-life drugs.

Ms Palaszczuk on Tuesday would not rule out making last-minute changes to the legislation to mirror SA’s laws.

“What I can say is cabinet is still considering that bill so that will be coming to cabinet next Monday,” she said when asked to explain why the government had decided not to offer a blanket ­institutional objection.

“Cabinet can do whatever it wants to do, that is the prerogative of the cabinet and I am not going to pre-empt the cabinet.”

While several Palaszczuk ministers are determined to see the bill passed unamended, others have toldThe Australianthey “don’t mind” if church-affiliated hospitals are given greater protections if it means more MPs will support the overall scheme.

VAD advocate David Muir pleaded with Ms Palaszczuk not to tinker with the legislation, which has been scrutinised by two parliamentary inquiries.

“Moving someone at the end of their life would put them through unnecessary trauma, could cause enormous distress to their loved ones and be very disturbing for people working at the hospital,” said Mr Muir, Clem Jones Group chair. “Terminal sedation happens every day of the week in Catholic hospitals, by way of morphine. It is carried out discreetly and does not disturb anyone else so we think VAD would occur in the same way.”

LNP leader David Crisafulli has repeatedly refused to reveal his stance on the issue.