There is no going back if NSW suicide law passes, says Dominic Perrottet

Dominic Perrottet has opened debate on the state’s voluntary assisted dying bill in a passionate speech warning members that if they accept the principles of the legislation ‘nothing will be the same’.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: Adam Yip

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has opened the first day of debate on the state’s voluntary assisted dying bill in a passionate speech warning members that if they ­accept the principles of the legislation “nothing will be the same”.

In an emotional and wide-­ranging speech, Mr Perrottet began his remarks discussing his 90-year-old grandmother, who is in hospital with pancreatic cancer.

“This time last week I was in the last place many of us would want to be. In a hospital, next to a bed, visiting a patient with a terminal illness. That patient is my grandmother … This debate is not abstract for me, it is very real and very personal,” he said.

As the first speaker to respond to the bill, the Premier said the ­details of the legislation were irrelevant compared to the broader, philosophical questions that underpin the debate.

“This debate today is not about the details of the bill that is in front of us. It is not about the strengths or weaknesses of the safeguards or the rights of medical practitioners or the technicalities of who qualifies and who doesn’t. It is so much bigger than all of that. This debate is fundamentally about how we treat that precious thing called human life,” he said.

Mr Perrottet argued the bill went “to the bedrock of our ethics” and urged members to recognise that “once we cross this threshold there should be no illusions as to what we would have done”.

Drawing on a range of international examples, where voluntary assisted dying had been legislated, Mr Perrottet said “all we have to do is look at the places that have taken this journey before us” to understand the ramifications of the bill.

“In Canada assisted dying was first legalised in 2016. It was restricted to terminally ill patients just like the bill we’re debating today,” he said.

“But this year, Canada’s parliament passed an amendment. The government of Canada’s website on who is eligible for medical ­assistance in dying states: ‘You do not need to have a fatal or terminal condition to be eligible for medical assistance in dying’. Now, terminal illness is no longer ­required for those seeking euthanasia.

“In Belgium, euthanasia has been legal for nearly 20 years. It too started with those who were terminally ill or had incurable diseases. But in recent years, many cases of euthanasia involve people whose deaths are not imminent. It is the same story in The Netherlands.”

Mr Perrottet argued that overseas examples clearly demonstrated that the legislation could not be pulled back or contained once it was enshrined in law.

Independent MP Alex Greenwich, who introduced the voluntary assisted dying bill last month, has been pushing the government to permit a vote in the upper house before the end of this year. The bill has been co-sponsored by 28 MPs from across the political spectrum – the highest number in any Australian parliament.

Supporters of the bill railed against Mr Perrottet’s framing of the debate on Friday, with deputy Labor leader Jo Haylen accusing the Premier of “pitting palliative care and voluntary assisted dying against one another”.

Likewise, Greens MP Jamie Parker ­argued even the best palliative care “cannot alleviate the suffering some people experience at the end of their lives”, noting that the bill presented a historic opportunity to provide a humane and legal option for people in ­immense pain.