Queensland election: Labor to legalise euthanasia

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says a re-elected Labor government would move to legalise voluntary-assisted dying

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk waves during Labor’s official campaign launch in Beenleigh. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says a re-elected Labor government would move to legalise voluntary-assisted dying.

Making the major announcement at Labor’s campaign launch at Beenleigh, Ms Palaszczuk said all of her MPs would be given a conscience vote on the issue, which she referred to the Queensland Law Reform Commission this year.

“I believe individuals and families should be empowered to consider all the options available in consultation with their medical professionals,” she said.

“That’s why today I can commit that the government I lead will introduce legislation in February next year to provide for the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying.”

Leadership means taking the right decisions, not the easy decisions. And that’s what I’m doing today. pic.twitter.com/9iOlGuszEe

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 18, 2020

Earlier, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles says the state is only safe from COVID-19 because Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk withstood “ganging up” from the federal government over border closures.

Officially launching the Labor campaign at a plumbing training centre warehouse at Beenleigh, south of Brisbane, Mr Miles put a strong emphasis on the fight against the coronavirus, rather than Labor’s other policies.

“The Premier has put the health and jobs of Queenslanders first,” he said.

“Even when it felt like everyone was ganging up against us … we are safe here in Queensland, because Annastacia Palaszczuk kept us strong.”

Mr Miles said Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, and the LNP had “ganged up” on the Queensland government, but it had remained steadfast in its decision to close the borders.

Annastacia Palaszczuk elbow-bumps with her deputy Steven Miles. Miles has credited the Premier with being “the reason Queenslanders are COVID-safe”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

After Mr Miles speech, four Queenslanders spoke: a small businessman, an apprentice, a woman who lives in a retirement village, and a senior nurse at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

A slickly made video was then played, featuring the international borders closing, the Ruby Princess, and a montage of LNP politicians calling for the borders to be open, including former LNP Premier Campbell Newman.

“Just stop playing silly games you bunch of cowards, and open the borders,” Mr Newman was recorded saying.

To a standing ovation from the party faithful, Ms Palaszczuk entered the warehouse.

Ms Palaszczuk attacked the LNP, focusing on the Opposition’s “reckless” stance on borders.

The audience leapt into a “spontaneous” standing ovation when Ms Palaszczuk said: “Our government secured Queensland’s borders to protect the health of our community”.

“But Deb Frecklington and Scott Morrison demanded we reopen the borders on the 1st of July – almost the exact day Victoria’s second wave of infections began.”

Ms Palaszczuk and her government reopened the borders to all but Victoria from July 10.

“If the LNP’s open-borders, open-slather policy had been in place, every single regional town and coastal community could have been hit,” she said.

“…and if you want a brutal lesson in what happens to the economy when governments lose control of the virus, you only have to look at Victoria.”

Ms Palaszczuk’s speech also attacked LNP leader Ms Frecklington over her links with Campbell Newman, and Mr Newman’s government’s public service cuts.

LNP campaign launch

Deb Frecklington has used the impending four-year term of government to warn Queensland voters they cannot afford to make the wrong choice at the ballot box on October 31.

Speaking at a campaign launch at the Emporium Hotel in the electorate of South brisbane, held by Jackie Trad, Ms Frecklington said the Palaszczuk government’s economic performance and a supposed lack of vision for the future were reason enough to vote for the Liberal National Party.

Walking in to a standing ovation, Ms Frecklington spoke in front of a screen emblazoned with her slogan; “Let’s get Queensland working again.”

“Queenslanders cannot afford to make the wrong choice this election,” Ms Frecklington told supporters.

“It is a big decision. It is an important decision. This election is a choice between the LNP’s economic plan and Labor’s economic failure.”

Queensland LNP opposition leader Deb Frecklington officially launches the LNP state election campaign at the Emporium Hotel, in South Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

LNP figures and other luminaries at the campaign launch, two weeks out from election day, included Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, former Premier Rob Borbidge and industry leaders and architects of the New Bradfield irrigation and electricity scheme Sir Leo Hielscher and Sir Frank Moore.

Ms Frecklington said voters would have to decide who they trusted to lead the resurrection of the Queensland economy after the destruction wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is now decision time and it is a very important decision,” she said.

“This election will be a turning point for this state. The next state government will be in power for the next four years, not three. And those four years will be crucial for our economic future.

“This election is about who has the best plan to lead Queensland out of this recession.”

The LNP’s plan is based on four foundations: “investing for growth; unleashing Queensland industry; supercharging the regions; securing our children’s future”.

Deb Frecklington and Lauren Day, LNP candidate for Maiwar. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Ms Frecklington’s speech followed on from her deputy Tim Mander, who said the news last week that Queensland had the worst unemployment rate in the nation, for the fourth consecutive year, was “disturbing.”

“We have the worst unemployment rate in the nation because we have the worst state government in the nation,” Mr Mander said.

He took aim at Labor over the government’s criticism of the LNP’s pledge to reduce unemployment from 7.7 per cent to 5 per cent within four years and return the budget to surplus within the same time period without selling assets or forced redundancies of public servants.

“This is a government that does not have ambition for Queenslanders,” Mr Mander said.

“No target for unemployment. No plan to return to surplus. No plan to repay debt. This is a government that does not have a budget and if you don’t have a budget, you don’t have a plan.”

The party’s most recent premier, Campbell Newman, was a notable omission from the crowd at the launch event.

Ms Frecklington’s speech finished with a video flyover of the New Bradfield irrigation scheme, which would involve diverting water from rivers on north Queensland’s coast into a dam from where it is redirected to the dry interior.