Thursday, 16 October 2025

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (18:06): (2027) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for the minister to urgently pause the Labor government’s dangerous and reckless attempts to amend the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017. The bill requires conscientiously objecting health practitioners to provide minimum information about VAD. It forces practitioners to violate their conscience by compelling them to provide information about something they do not consider health care, potentially driving ethical professionals from the health sector. The statutory review did not recommend these changes. The government has not explained the healthcare reason for these changes, which are clearly ideological.

Dr Stephen Parnis, a former AMA president – and very respected on the Labor side of politics as well – recently made statements on the Curtin’s Cast podcast about his warning five years ago that safeguards that are there for a reason will inevitably be redefined as barriers to access, which is exactly what this government is doing. Currently there are safeguards in the law which mean that conscientious objectors, like a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu, can refuse to partake in advising patients about information about assisted suicide. Health practitioners who fail to comply with the requirement to provide information will now face the potential loss or suspension of their registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and may lose their insurance coverage due to obligations to comply with civil law.

I want to thank all the groups, and particularly the faith groups, that have written to me in regard to this, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, the Board of Imams Victoria, the Hindu Council of Australia, the Sikh Interfaith Council of Victoria, the Victorian Sikh Gurdwaras Council – the government is big on consulting with the Sikh community, so I hope they have on this – the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, the Chaldean diocese of Australia, the Syro Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle, the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Melbourne and the Maronite Eparchy of Australia. I also want to thank the other faith groups that I have engaged in discussions with in regard to this, like the Syrian Orthodox church, like the Assyrian Church of the East, like the Antiochian Orthodox church and many, many others, because they also share deep concerns about this. I worry about health care in the northern suburbs, particularly in places like the Northern Hospital, where many people who are staff there will have a conscientious objection. So I seek the action of the minister: abandon this bill; voluntary assisted dying is not health care.