Tasmania Plans Euthanasia Reform

Tasmania plans euthanasia reform, June 23, 2010.

TASMANIA is set to become the first Australian state to legalise euthanasia after a surprise announcement yesterday.

Attorney-General Lara Giddings used her parliamentary Budget reply speech to unveil progressive plans for law reform in Tasmania in the next four-year term of the Labor-Greens government.

It included an unexpected decision to reintroduce a voluntary euthanasia proposal to Parliament, long-awaited plans for a Tasmanian Charter of Rights and yet another overhaul of flawed laws regulating the professional sex industry.

New death legislation is expected to come before Parliament mid next year, aided by an extra $300,000 allocation in last week's Budget for assistance in drafting these complicated new sets of laws.

All of the law reforms proposed yesterday by Ms Giddings will be open for public consultation before coming before Parliament.

She told Parliament yesterday she was committed to helping Tasmanians faced with terminal illness die with dignity, pledging to work co-operatively with Greens leader Nick McKim on new voluntary euthanasia laws.

Mr McKim, now a minister in the Labor Cabinet, went to the state election promising voters to continue to fight for the right of gravely ill Tasmanians to die with dignity in doctor-assisted death pacts.

Last November Mr McKim's private member's Dying With Dignity Bill before the 25-member Lower House was defeated 15 votes to seven.

Ms Giddings was one of few Labor members who, in an open conscience vote, sided with Mr McKim and voted for his legislation.

She denied that the swift reintroduction of Dying With Dignity plans so soon after the election was

the result of any political deal with the Greens, who returned the minority Bartlett Labor government to power in April.

Instead Ms Giddings said the new laws were about what was right for Tasmanians, what the public wanted, and showing the nation the true face of a vibrant island state.

"Nick brought [the last Bill] in and I supported it on principle," Ms Giddings said yesterday.

"But I was concerned at the time that the legislation [the Greens] proposed was so cumbersome.

"I want to now work co-operatively with Nick McKim to look at other models around the world, because I think there are MPs who last time supported the principle but could not vote for the legislation because of its complexity."

The Liberal Opposition accused Ms Giddings of springing contentious issues on the Tasmanian public without warning.

Opposition police spokesman Rene Hidding accused her of deliberately concealing her intentions to reintroduce right-to-die laws at the election.

Ms Giddings said it was wrong of the Opposition to claim the Government had no mandate to introduce new draft laws after so much broader public debate about issues such as voluntary euthanasia and a myriad of other public forums and reviews of the sex industry and human rights laws.

Ms Giddings said a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities was a key reform which would protect human rights in Tasmania while making governments more open, accountable and transparent.

Mr McKim last night said he was delighted to be working with the Attorney-General on such difficult issues as euthanasia and human rights.

By Sue Neales, The Mercury