Queensland LNP leader to vote against voluntary euthanasia

Despite strong public support for Annastacia Palaszczuk’s right-to-die bill, Liberal leader will vote against ‘flawed legislation’.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli. Picture: John Gass

Queensland Labor’s voluntary ­euthanasia laws will pass in state parliament on Thursday with the support of up to nine Liberal Nat­ional Party politicians and despite the opposition of their leader, David Crisafulli.

Mr Crisafulli had repeatedly refused to reveal his personal position on the issue until debate began in parliament on Tuesday afternoon when he revealed he did not support terminally ill people’s right to die.

The Gold Coast-based MP said he could not support “flawed legislation” that allowed people to ­access assisted dying before they qualified for specialist palliative care services in the public system.

“That doesn’t seem like a free choice to me,” Mr Crisafulli said in parliament.

“This legislation stipulates ­patients have access to VAD at 12 months while specialist palliative care is only available to those with a prognosis of three months. I believe this bill unintentionally, but unavoidably, puts a lesser value on the life of the poor, the remote, the sick.”

Mr Crisafulli told The Australian that amendments moved by his deputy, David Janetzki, would “make it a much better bill” but he would still not vote in favour of voluntary euthanasia if they were adopted.

Queensland’s legislation goes further than other states by extending eligibility for those with a diagnosed life expectancy from six months to 12 months.

Doctors will be allowed to raise the option of assisted dying with patients and nurse practitioners will be permitted to administer the end-of-life drugs.

The patient must have ­decision-making capacity and would need to be separately and independently assessed by two doctors, not necessarily specialists.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk denied that cabinet considered tweaking the laws to appease religious-run hospitals and aged-care homes, which will be forced to facilitate assisted dying on site when patients are too sick to be transferred.

“No, they did not, you have got it completely wrong,” she said.

The Australian understands cabinet did consider amending the bill, with some ministers sympathising with faith-based organisations, but on Monday decided to debate the legislation in its original form. It did, however, release proposed clinical guidelines that address concerns of private hospitals and aged-care homes.

Former LNP leader Tim Nicholls, who voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in 2018, backs the legislation, which he says strikes a “fair and reasonable” balance between the rights of ­religious-run facilities and the wishes of the individual.

“When it must, it comes down in favour of the dying individual,” said Mr Nicholls, who is the LNP’s legal affairs spokesman.

Labor frontbencher Mark Furner, a Catholic, will vote in favour of the laws. “I will never forget the final words of my father before he passed. He said ‘Just let me go, just let me go’. That is why I will be supporting this bill.”

Major party politicians will be granted a conscience vote on Thursday afternoon.

LNP insiders predict as many as nine opposition MPs will vote in favour of euthanasia, including Mr Nicholls, Michael Hart, Sam O’Connor and Rob Molhoek.

The two Green MPs and Noosa independent Sandy Bolton will also support the bill, ensuring it sails through the one-house ­parliament.

Mr Janetzki, the LNP’s justice spokesman, moved more than 50 amendments to the bill on behalf of other objecting MPs.

They will require specialist medical involvement, offer blanket institutional conscientious objection and enhance reporting measures, including annual reporting on palliative care and treatment spending.