Voluntary Assisted Dying

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (15:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General regarding voluntary assisted dying.

Leave granted.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: It has been reported that Kym Allen Parsons, who has now pleaded guilty to armed robbery charges and admitted to being the bicycle bandit, has been approved for voluntary assisted dying and has the means to end his life. It was reported that this would have been around eight months before his trial. It has also been reported that he had a voluntary assisted dying kit and had approval to make use of it. One source has said, 'I think if he uses the voluntary assisted dying, it won't be fair…where is the justice?' Late last year it was reported that repeat paedophile Malcolm Winston Day died days just after being accepted into the voluntary assisted dying program. At the time, one of Mr Day's victims said:

All I asked was that he served his sentence…for the government to allow him to choose his own destiny is another blow. I hope this is the case that changes the legislation so that the next victim of the next offender does not have to experience this.

My questions of the minister are:

1. Does the minister support individuals facing charges being granted access to voluntary assisted dying before trial?

2. Does the minister support individuals convicted of offences being granted access to voluntary assisted dying, whilst serving out their term of imprisonment?

3. Does the Attorney-General believe the legislation should be amended to ensure those convicted and serving a term of imprisonment, or those who are charged and awaiting trial, are not able to access voluntary assisted dying?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:21): I thank the honourable member for her question. I certainly will not be commenting on an individual matter or on whether someone has applied for or has been granted access to voluntary assisted dying. I don't know—nor should I, nor should anyone else—what medical treatment anyone has applied for or is undergoing. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to talk about a particular individual circumstance.

However, I can say that, in relation to the voluntary assisted dying scheme that this parliament passed during the last term, we see, consistent with what former health minister Stephen Wade called the model that was developing and is now in effect in every jurisdiction now, apart from the Northern Territory, with the passing of legislation in the Australian Capital Territory only in recent weeks, the Australian model of voluntary assisted dying that incorporates some of the most stringent conditions of both the North American and European models.

I think the voluntary assisted dying model that has developed in Australia, with some variations in different jurisdictions, is recognised as the most conservative approach to voluntary assisted dying anywhere in the world. I am trying to remember the Victorian model, which was the first in 2017 in Australia and which had something in the mid to high sixties in terms of protections in place.

The South Australian model added to that and there were something like 72 different protections in place throughout the operation of the scheme and, importantly, for a person to gain access to voluntary assisted dying they have to be assessed under the model in South Australia, which is reasonably consistent with most other states, to having an incurable disease or affliction that will end their life within six months, or for neurodegenerative conditions within 12 months, and they have to be assessed by two different medical practitioners to make that assessment.