Voluntary Assisted Dying

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (15:03): I seek leave to give a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General regarding voluntary assisted dying.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: On 22 August, The Advertiser reported that there has been a sharp increase in the number of people choosing to end their lives using voluntary assisted dying. There were 28 permits in the three months from January to April. However, in May and June this jumped to 40 in just two months. My questions to the Attorney are:

1. Why have these rates escalated so dramatically?

2. Is the Attorney concerned with the dramatic rates of increase at a time when the hospital system is in crisis?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for her question. Of course, the Minister for Health has carriage of the legislation for voluntary assisted dying, but I still take a very keen interest in it.

I don't know if the insinuation of the honourable member's question is that people are choosing or being pressured into a voluntary assisted dying pathway because of some pressure on hospitals. If that is an insinuation, I would completely, utterly and totally reject that. Certainly, experience from other states that have had a scheme operating a lot longer has looked at some of the factors for people becoming part of the scheme. The idea of some sort of undue influence is certainly something that, particularly, opponents of voluntary assisted dying have raised.

The head of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board in Victoria, a couple of years ago after a couple of years of operation, was asked specifically about the prospect of undue influence. She responded something along the lines of, 'I have found no evidence of undue influence and, trust me, I've looked.' The idea that this is a pathway people are choosing or being pressured into, I would completely and utterly reject. There is no evidence or basis for such a claim at all.

In relation to the numbers of people who have been issued a permit and then use the substance that is provided under voluntary assisted dying, the honourable member is correct. I thoroughly read the first three-month report, and I have just had a brief look at the second three-month report. There is an increase for the second three months.

If my memory serves me correctly, one of the things that was identified either in the report or some commentary on the report was a very high-profile case of a young woman in South Australia who used voluntary assisted dying that was reported extensively across the media, particularly in The Advertiser, as a very likely factor as to why other people in the general public knew more about it. When you have such high-profile cases, it raises the fact that this is an available option for people who might not have known it before. That may be one explanation. That might have even been referred to in the report.