MY LIFE MY CHOICE A newsletter produced for the dominant purpose of educating and raising awareness of the need for voluntary assisted dying law reform in Queensland — No.17 October 2020

Two simple COUNTDOWN FOR questions The My Life My Choice CANDIDATES coalition partners are asking all state election candidates Would -be MPs quizzed on two questions to determine the strength of their support support for VAD law reform STATE ELECTION for voluntary assisted dying. Recently Dying With Dignity supporters at Hervey Bay in 2020 We believe anyone seeking to the Fraser Coast and at Bundaberg in the Wide Bay region become an MP in the 2020- arranged public events to highlight the need for voters to 2024 Queensland Parliament quiz state election candidates on their support for should be able to answer voluntary assisted dying laws. these very basic in-principle questions which do not rely on Both events were very successful in attracting valuable seeing any draft VAD Bill. media exposure and the Bundaberg forum was even attended by one of the region’s local MPs, David Batt (LNP QUESTION 1: Do you, as a Bundaberg) who engaged with the audience in often matter of principle support vigorous terms, but did not provide a definitive answer to the right of Queenslanders whether he supports VAD in principle. to have the choice of seeking access to a system The My Life My Choice coalition has been asking all election of voluntary assisted dying candidates to state where they stand on VAD. under appropriate CONTINUED PAGE 2 protections and safeguards, if they have a terminal illness or neurological condition causing them intolerable suffering?

QUESTION 2: Would you, as an MP in the Queensland Parliament ensure your vote on a VAD Bill reflects the wishes of your constituents?

The results of our survey will be released prior to the start of pre-poll voting on 19 October. Those on our Clockwise from top right: Dr Sid Finnigan addresses Fraser newsletter mail-out list will Coast DWDQ members, DWDQ’s Phill Browne tells his receive a copy of the survey story, David Muir talks at the Bundaberg forum, DWDQ’s report. Phyllis Wagner with Sid and David at the Bundaberg forum

Another US state Next Premier holds NT marks a the key to reform milestone moves on VAD laws Page 2 Page 4 Page 5

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RESULTS OF Pro-VAD candidate declares ELECTION QUIZ VAD advocate Dr Richard Stuckey has The LNP’s won the seat announced his intention to run as an in a March by-election. RELEASED SOON independent candidate in the Gold Dr Stuckey was reportedly planning to Coast seat of Currumbin. FROM PAGE 1: focus on a number of local issues as His wife, Jann Stuckey, who held the well as supporting VAD. At the time of writing about seat for the LNP until retiring in 320 people had publicly “COVID will pass and the economy will January for health reasons. Mrs declared their plans to recover slowly, but people will still get Stuckey was also a VAD supporter nominate as candidates for terminal illnesses. They deserve a despite the LNP’s official anti-VAD the 31 October state Dr Richard Stuckey choice in how they die,” he said. platform. election.

On top of the 87 sitting MPs Post-poll Premier will be recontesting their seats in the 93-member parliament that means we have pivotal to law reform attempted to quiz around Whether Queensland will have a is to support VAD and the LNP’s 410 individuals about their system of voluntary assisted is to oppose it. in-principle position on dying depends largely on who voluntary assisted dying. However, because any vote on leads the government elected at We recognise that it is VAD would rightly be a the 31 October election. Premier inevitable that not all of conscience vote, no MP on (left) and Opposition Leader Deb those we asked will respond either side of the house would Frecklington (right) The current Premier, Annastacia in time to be included in the be bound by their party policy. Palaszczuk, has referred the published results. recommendations for VAD laws But a conscience vote made by the State Parliament’s However, we will have given means nothing if a VAD Bill is not Health Committee Inquiry to the them every opportunity to put before MPs to debate and Queensland Law reform do so. hopefully pass. Commission.

We believe that the answers So far Ms Frecklington has not It is the QLRC’s task now to draft provided by those who do committed to do so. answer our questions will a VAD Bill and return it to the STATE ELECTION government by 1 March 2021. Unless that position changes, it give voters a good idea means that if Ms Frecklington 2020 about which candidates in If her Labor Party is returned to becomes premier any VAD Bill their seat can be relied upon office and she remains leader of to back a VAD Bill if and now being drafted by the QLRC KEY DATES: the government, Ms Palaszczuk when one reaches the floor may not be progressed by her Candidate nominations close would be expected to have State of the 2020-2024 government. and ballot draw: Sunday 11 Cabinet consider the draft Bill Queensland Parliament. October from the QLRC and submit it to In such circumstances it may be Pre-poll voting: Monday 19 the parliament for consideration left to an individual MP in any David Muir by its 93 MPs. October-Friday 30 October party or an independent to Election day: Saturday 31 Chair sponsor a private member’s Bill October The Clem Jones Trust The Labor Party’s official policy to deliver VAD law reform.

‘Simmo’ loses his last fight

Former state secretary of the Electrical Trades Union in Queensland, Peter Simpson, recently lost his fight with melanoma.

Mr Simpson was just 57 when he died.

As a union official he was known as a tough and no-nonsense industrial especially through public and social media Queenslanders now and in the future can advocate. He brought that toughness and channels (pictured) in recognition of the fact benefit from them. It is a simple request dedication to his personal health battle that it is a reform that holds the possibility that no person who is suffering should wait but also found time and energy to of benefitting its own members by offering a a day longer than necessary for VAD laws. advocate for voluntary assisted dying better choice at the end of life. laws. The members of the My Life My Choice In particular the union has been asking for coalition express their condolences to Mr As a result of his struggle the ETU has VAD laws to be passed and implemented in Simpson’s family, friends, and colleagues. been campaigning strongly for VAD laws Queensland without any delay so that

Helping to spread the message Voters and candidates need to consider VAD before the polls close

In the past few weeks and in the days remaining before the state election, members of Dying With Dignity Queensland will be out and about reminding voters of the importance of the state poll to the future of VAD law reform.

Our members and supporters have STATE ELECTION been active at various venues such as a shopping centre at Elanora on 2020 the Gold Coast where former LNP MP for Currumbin and VAD supporter, Jann Stuckey, and her husband Richard dropped by to lend their support to our efforts (pictured right).

We have been telling Queenslanders evidence was in favour of having about Dying With Dignity Queensland and voluntary assisted dying laws.

its history. We now must wait to see if the

We are also telling them of the critical party or parties forming the next importance of their vote at the 31 state government will progress October state election and the need for those laws.

them to assess all candidates standing in If a VAD Bill is put to parliament, their seat to see if their next MP will back we need to know that the majority VAD law reform or not. of the 93 MPs who’ll consider it

The fight to have voluntary assisted dying are in favour of VAD law reform. laws in Queensland has been running for decades. Which means voters need to send pro-VAD MPs to the 2020-2024 But in just the last few years we have parliament. seen our Queensland Parliament agree to a widespread inquiry into end-of-life It is that key message we will issues including VAD. continue to push as we approach election day. That inquiry led by Aaron Harper, the Member for Thuringowa, and including Jos Hall MPs from the Labor Party, the LNP, and President the Greens, undertook the massive task of listening to hundreds of witnesses, and Dying With Dignity considering thousands of submissions. Queensland

As expected the overwhelming weight of www.dwdq.org.au

Marj makes a good point

DWDQ. members and supporters give VAD law reform any in North Queensland continue priority in the next State to advocate strongly for VAD Parliament. laws and to call for MPs and would-be MPs to support law That means that if KAP MPs reform. hold the balance of power, the issue of VAD law Marj Lawrence continued their reform will not be on the efforts recently by using a letter parliamentary agenda. to the editor to point out the risk of supporting political parties If that happens then the VAD Bill 2020-2024 Queensland be a real tragedy if VAD law that ignore the need for VAD being drafted by the Queensland Parliament. reform is shelved by political

laws. Law Reform Commission will not game-playing after the Political parties and MPs who see the light of day. don’t give VAD a priority are not decades we have spent Marj pointed out that the in touch with what the campaigning for it. Katter’s Australian Party had Marj’s letter underlines the vital publicly stated that it would not need to return pro-VAD MPs to the community wants and it would JOS HALL ]\

Engagement by candidates varies Voters find out who is listening to their concerns and who isn’t The My Life My Choice coalition is finalising its survey of more than 400 candidates standing for office at the 31 October state election.

As expected the early results show a variety of response to the questions we have asked that are outlined on the front page of this newsletter.

This is to be expected when the issue of voluntary assisted dying is to be the subject of a conscience vote if and when it reaches the floor of the parliament.

Even last year, well before we entered the election period, a number of MPs in the LNP as well as the Labor Party took the initiative to host community information forums on VAD for their constituents.

It has been pleasing to see many candidates taking the same approach.

For instance in the western Brisbane seat of Moggill, the Greens Party candidate Lawson McCane (pictured at top) has hosted an online forum at which members of the My Life My Choice coalition were available to STATE ELECTION answer audience questions. 2020

Labor’s candidate in the Gold Coast seat of Currumbin, Kaylee Campradt, earlier this coming state election. We want month organised a forum which was very voters themselves to be aware well attended (middle two pictures). of where their local candidates or would-be MPs stand on VAD. My Life My Choice organised its own online forum in the seat of Pumicestone, in the We are asking voters to in Moreton region north of Brisbane. turn ask their local candidates directly about their position on While we issued invitations to all those voluntary assisted dying. candidates who were known at the time to be standing, only Labor’s accept the The next State Parliament must offer to attend. have a majority of pro-VAD MPs if we are to have a hope It was very disappointing that the others of achieving VAD law reform.

ducked the opportunity we offered for them Pro-VAD voters need to to connect with voters and to learn more support pro-VAD candidates of about VAD and the strength of local support their choice. for law reform.

However, as the sole candidate who Remember that it is far too late after the polls close to discover your next MP is not a From top: Greens candidate Lawson appeared, Ali King was able to outline how McCane hosting his Moggill webinar; the and why she supports voluntary assisted VAD backer. Currumbin forum organised by Labor’s dying and committed to ensuring we get candidate Kaylee Campradt; Ms good workable laws in our state if and when Dr Sid Finnigan MBBS, FRANZCO she has the opportunity as an MP to do so. Queensland Convenor Campradt with My Life My Choice Doctors For Assisted Dying Choice speakers Dr Sid Finnigan and Jos Hall; and My Life My Choice is not endorsing any Labor’s candidate Ali King makes a point party or any candidate standing for the during the My Life My Choice webinar for Pumicestone voters and candidates.

Check out N orthern who’s who Territory in your seat

Anyone wanting to quiz marks a candidates standing in their electorate about their stand on VAD but don’t know which seat they live in can check their address on the Electoral milestone Commission of Queensland website. A milestone in the history of voluntary

assisted dying in Australia was marked To find the contact details of recently by Darwin’s daily newspaper your sitting local MP, check the the Northern Territory News. Queensland Parliament’s website. The newspaper carried a story (pictured above right) noting that 24 years had passed since Bob Dent became the first person to use the Territory’s VAD laws enacted by the NT Parliament on the initiative of former Chief Minister Marshall Perron (pictured right).

The story featured Mr Dent’s widow Judy who has been campaigning for

VAD law reform since the Federal Parliament overturned the NT laws in You can find candidates for 1997, just a year after they took effect. Sunshine Coast, also continues to the parties standing in your campaign strongly for VAD laws seat by visiting their websites: In that time only four people were able throughout Australia including the to use the NT’s VAD laws. right for the NT and the ACT to • LNP

implement their own row laws free • Labor Party Under the Australian Constitution the from federal interference. • The Greens Federal Parliament can overturn laws • One Nation made by the territories. A coalition of Federal Attorney-General, Christian • Katter’s Australian Party MPs from both sides of the Federal Porter (pictured right), has recently • NQ First Parliament succeeded in passing confirmed that the Morrison • Animal Justice Party legislation to scuttle the NT law. Government had “no plans to • Informed Medical introduce legislation to repeal the Options Party Marshall Perron, now living on the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997” • Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party • United Australia Party

What the NT News said......

For many, euthanasia can mean the difference of Canberra is still deciding what choices residents dying with dignity, suffering in pain for months on of the Northern Territory have. end or ending one’s life by suicide, which in turn is In addition a number of a touchy subject. Again the right for someone to die by assisted independent candidates have euthanasia doesn’t affect those in Canberra. It declared their plans to seek The NT was ahead of its time when the Rights of gives those who are terminally ill in the NT the office. the Terminally Ill Act 1995 was introduced. choice. They include John Connolly in It allowed Bob Dent, a man who had battled We are treated as second-rate citizens to the rest the seat of Maroochydore, prostate cancer, the dignity to end his suffering the of Australia as the right for us to decide what Claire Richardson in Oodgeroo way he wanted. His decision didn’t impact or hurt legislation we govern ourselves by is ultimately in the Redlands district, and anyone else. It was his choice alone to make and decided by people in Canberra. Margaret Keech in Macalister. that’s how it should be. It’s time for Canberra to relinquish the power. VAD supporter and the Sadly the latte-sipping Southerners of Canberra After all if Victoria and WA can pass euthanasia Independent MP for Noosa, had other ideas and just nine months later the laws, why can’t we have our rights returned? , is also seeking bigwig politicians introduced legislation that took re-election. away the right for Territories to decide. This is an edited version of the editorial in the 23

September 2020 edition of the NT News That legislation still stands today, 24 years later.

SUPPORTER Another US state moves

SUMS UP THE closer to legalising VAD ARGUMENT Massachusetts may soon become the 11th US jurisdiction to A pro-VAD member of the legalise voluntary assisted dying. Massachusetts State Senate,

The proposed law was recently William Brownsberger, said approved by the Committee on his own view had been Public Health of the state’s influenced by the argument used by his own father. legislature.

Senator Brownsberger’s It was the first time the father was a psychiatrist who legislation had been passed worked with elderly patients. through the committee since it was first introduced in its original “[My father’s] argument, form in 2011. which I find persuasive, is

VAD laws, or medical aid in dying that it’s actually very (MAID) laws as they are widely comforting for people who known in the United States have are heading into a terminal illness to know if they need been proposed in Massachusetts to they can tap out,” he said. since 1995 but none has jurisdictions either by the passage Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, progressed as far as the latest of legislation or through court Utah, and Wisconsin. “To know that if the pain gets version. rulings. (See table) too bad and there is no light

The Bill being considered in at the end of the tunnel at all It is believed that there are A number of other states have Massachusetts has similar they can end it. sufficient supporters in the introduced VAD Bills in 2020 or provisions to Oregon’s Death legislature to have the law passed have continued considering with Dignity Act. “Most people are not so but it is unclear if a vote will be proposed laws introduced in 2019. afraid of dying, but they are taken this year because of It would allow for mentally They include Arizona, Connecticut, afraid of suffering. disruptions to the legislative capable, terminally ill patients process caused by the COVID-19 Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, who are expected to die within “Knowing that they have a pandemic. Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, six months to end their life way to avoid suffering is Massachusetts, Minnesota, New through taking a prescribed comforting,” he said. VAD is already legal in 10 US Hampshire, New York, Virginia, medication.

Movement on VAD laws around the world

Irish Parliament debates law reform NEWS IN BRIEF according to a Gallup Poll in June Irish MP Gino Kenny of the People Before Profit Party has suffering to either endure introduced a private member’s Austrians seek court Saturday 17 October. intolerable conditions or seek Bill to implement VAD. ruling to OK VAD VAD abroad. The End of Life Choice Act was Major parties have said they will passed by the NZ Parliament support debate on the Bill while Austria’s Constitutional Court is NZ referendum earlier this year on the the nation’s Catholic Church this month expected to hear condition that it would not be predicted to pass leaders have heavily attacked it. arguments that the nation’s enacted unless approved by current ban on VAD is Political observers believe a voters nationwide. unconstitutional. proposed VAD law will be approved by a referendum If approved at the referendum Four applicants, including two being held in conjunction with on election day the law will take who are seriously ill, are New Zealand’s election on effect from October 2021. seeking to have two sections of the nation’s Criminal Code repealed.

Sections 77 and 78 provide heavy penalties for people involved in VAD activities www.dwdq.org.au www.drs4assisteddyingchoice.org including up to five years in jail. [email protected] The My Life My Choice monthly newsletter is produced by the Clem Jones Group, Dying With Dignity The applicants say the current Queensland, and Doctors For Assisted Dying Choice (Qld) for the dominant purpose of educating and law forces people who are raising awareness of voluntary assisted dying.

Authorised: J Hall 77 Benson Street, Toowong, Qld 4066