Threat to Malcolm Turnbull as euthanasia cabinet split looms

Senior ministers warn euthanasia threatens Turnbull with a repeat of last year’s bitter divisions over same-sex marriage.

A cabinet split over euthanasia is looming as a threat to Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Kym Smith

A split within cabinet is looming over euthanasia, prompting ­several senior ministers to warn that the issue threatens Malcolm Turnbull with a repeat of last year’s bitter divisions inside the Coalition partyroom over same-sex ­marriage.

As the Senate prepares to begin debate today on a private member’s bill that would allow the ACT and the Northern Territory the right to legalise euth­anasia, the Prime Minister is coming under increasing pressure to block attempts to allow the bill to reach the lower house.

Ahead of a vote in the upper house, a Newspoll conducted for The Australian found 79 per cent of voters in favour of changing the law to allow doctors to comply with the wishes of a dying patient and assist in ending their life. Just 15 per cent were opposed.

The support was consistent across voting groups, with 78 per cent of Coalition voters and 82 per cent of Labor backing legalisation.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham’s declaration yesterday that he would vote for the bill — to repeal 1997 commonwealth laws that ban the territories from legislating on assisted suicide — sparked an angry response from several lower house colleagues.

“Every one of the 150 members in the house will want to have their say on it,” a senior minister said. “This will take out two weeks of the parliamentary calendar. This is not a top-order issue and the senator (Birmingham) knows that. We cannot afford a repeat of last year when we have far more pressing issues and legislation to get through.”

Another minister told The Australian that the issue posed a threat to Mr Turnbull’s authority if it was allowed to be brought to the lower house for a vote.

Political jousting over what could become a second battlefront for the PM as he struggles to secure support for his energy policy comes as senior doctors warn parliament against supporting euthanasia on clinical grounds.

St Vincent’s Hospital emergency physician Stephen Parnis said it was a “furphy” to say the bill was about territory rights.

The former Australian Medical Association Victoria president and federal vice-president said there was no way to comply with the safeguards. He said there should be more money spent on palliative care rather than a ­debate about assisted suicide.

“It is about state-sanctioned killing, even if it is killing of self; it is about the law and the values of our society, saying a number of people are better off dead and some lives are worth living and others are not,” Dr Parnis said.

He added it would make the Northern Territory’s large indigenous population sceptical about going to hospital.

“You want to widen the gap, pass this law, because indigenous people will vote with their feet and it will be even harder to get them to seek the medical care that they need,” he said.

The Australian Christian Lobby said polling it commissioned found support for euthanasia fell when respondents were asked to consider the question again after being told the AMA was opposed to it.

Supporters of the bill expect it to pass the upper house with 40 to 42 senators in favour. The Australian has confirmed 39 of the 76 senators are leaning towards supporting the bill, giving it a slim majority. Labor senator Anthony Chisholm was last week leaning towards supporting the bill but is understood to be reconsidering his position.

Senator Birmingham, who is in a bitter feud with the Catholic school sector over cuts to its ­funding under the government’s Gonski 2.0 reforms, yesterday confirmed he would support the bill, making him the most senior minister to back the legislation. “Just because the federal parliament doesn’t like what a state or territory does isn’t sufficient justification to trample over their right to do it,” Senator Birmingham said in a statement.

“Australians with a terminal illness should have a right to die with dignity, ideally with effective palliative care, but with sufficient safeguards that right, in extreme cases, should also extend to voluntary euthanasia.”

The Australian has been told Defence Minister Marise Payne is also likely to support the bill but her office declined to comment, while the office of Liberal senator Anne Ruston said she was still considering her position.

Liberal senator Arthur Sino­dinos will be absent with illness and will not be seeking a pair, while Labor senator Kimberley Kitching is away from Canberra and against the bill but will be given a pair from fellow Victorian senator Gavin Marshall, who is in favour of the reform.

Labor senator Don Farrell and Liberal senator Eric Abetz yesterday hosted an information session for MPs with doctors op­posed to doctor-assisted suicide. It was attended by Senator Chisholm and Labor senator Chris Ketter, who has declined to reveal his voting intention but is expected to vote against the bill. Sources said 10 senators and the staff of a further six attended the session.