Cabinet to consider amendments to assisted dying Bill

The Bill to legalise voluntary assisted dying in Queensland will be debated next week after a parliamentary committee recommended it be passed.

Last-minute changes could be made to Queensland’s voluntary assisted dying Bill in the wake of growing concern faith-based organisations would have little power to conscientiously object to the practice.

The Bill to legalise voluntary assisted dying in Queensland will be debated next week after a

parliamentary committee recommended it be passed following widespread consultation and a report from the Queensland Law Reform Commission.

However, there are concerns the proposed legislation will offer little power for faith-based hospitals and healthcare providers to stop assisted dying from occurring at their facilities -regardless of whether the institutions hold fundamental objections.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Brisbane on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Cabinet will consider the Bill on Monday before it is debated in parliament on Tuesday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government had consulted with churches and faith-based healthcare providers about the Bill and said the proposed law was open to change at next week’s Cabinet meeting.

“That will be coming to Cabinet next Monday and I’m not going to pre-empt Cabinet’s discussion and then there will be the debate next week during the parliament,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Cabinet can do whatever it wants to do – that’s the prerogative of the Cabinet.”

The Premier, who introduced the Bill to parliament in May and will vote in favour of assisted dying, called for her parliamentary colleagues to have a “respectful debate”.

“We’ve had a respectful debate in the community about voluntary assisted dying and I’m asking the parliament to also have a respectful debate,” she said.

It is understood many members of faith-based organisations are increasingly accepting Queensland MPs are likely to pass the bill next week, but are continuing to lobby for powers to object from undertaking the practice.

Last month St Vincent’s Health Australia CEO Toby Hall said the organisation’s doctors and nurses were shocked at the notion they might be forced to witness voluntary assisted dying taking place in their workplace.

“If passed in its current form, doctors and nurse practitioners will be able to enter Queensland hospitals – unaccredited by the hospital, unannounced, without permission – and assist patients in their premature death,” he said.

Go Gentle Australia CEO Kiki Paul said the Bill would not force any individual or organisation to participate against their will.

“The point of this law is to protect terminally ill people by offering them a choice over how much they need to suffer as they die,” she said.

“By watering down the provisions of the bill, and allowing institutions to dictate medical treatment, it takes away the very control this bill was designed to hand back to the terminally ill.

“Institutions should not have this power. People suffer in ways institutions do not.”

Deputy Premier Steven Miles has previously defended the proposed laws and said requiring an individual to transfer to a different hospice or service “when they’re close to death and in great pain” could subject them to distress and even deny them access to the scheme.

Originally published as Cabinet to consider amendments to assisted dying Bill