Australia’s governing Labor Party has voted to support the removal of federal legal barriers preventing euthanasia consultations from taking place by telephone or video call, while also changing its constitution to allow MPs a conscience vote on future voluntary assisted dying legislation.
The measures were approved at the Australian Labor Party’s national conference in Adelaide on Friday.
Delegates backed an amendment committing the party to repeal a 30-year-old provision in the federal criminal code that effectively prevents doctors from using telehealth to discuss voluntary assisted dying with patients, despite euthanasia being legal in most Australian states.
Victorian MP Ryan Batchelor, who introduced the amendment, argued that the existing law creates unnecessary delays and disadvantages patients living in rural and remote communities.
He said the federal legislation was preventing state euthanasia laws from operating as intended and described the current situation as “inequitable” and “distressing.”
Victoria became the first Australian state to legalise euthanasia in 2017, with Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia later following suit. The Northern Territory is expected to vote on legalising euthanasia next month.
Supporters of the amendment argued that patients living far from medical centres should be able to discuss assisted dying with doctors remotely, rather than travelling long distances for consultations.
However, the proposal also faced opposition from within Labor.
New South Wales MP Sally Quinnell warned that conversations about ending a patient’s life should not take place over video calls.
“These are literally life and death conversations,” she said.
“This is complex, nuanced, and shouldn’t be done over a Zoom call. It happens in person with empathy, careful listening, and human interaction.”
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland also expressed reservations about replacing face-to-face consultations with telehealth, although she later successfully moved a separate motion amending the party’s constitution to ensure Labor MPs are free to vote according to their conscience on voluntary assisted dying issues.
Rowland said she was “personally not convinced” that people considering assisted suicide should be denied an in-person consultation with a medical practitioner, adding that inadequate state resources were not a convincing justification for changing the law.
The resolutions adopted at the conference set the party’s policy direction but do not automatically change Australian law. Any amendments to the federal criminal code would still require legislation to be introduced and passed by Parliament.
SPUC CEO John Deighan has commented on the matter, saying: “SPUC looks on aghast at what has happened, very rapidly, to the Australian assisted suicide regime. Like Canada, Australia is a country with a similar constitution and similar people to Britain. It shows that the promises that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in Westminster is safe and will not lead to a slippery slope are hollow, as we’ve been saying.”
He continued, “Australia’s original assisted dying laws may have seemed reasonable to people once. Now they’re offering death-by-phone? Who’s to say Britain won’t do the same thing. This is why SPUC will do everything we can to bring down Lauren Edwards’ death bill in Westminster—to save us from this future.”
